The National Liberal Club, which was opened on Wednesday with
great éclat by a magnificent banquet at the Westminster Aquarium, where some 1,900 members, representing at least 400 English towns, sat down together, showed that it understood the exigency of the hour, by passing a resolution at a prelimi- nary meeting calling upon the Government not to prorogue Parliament till it had passed all the measures named in the Queen's Speech, in spite of obstruction. At the dinner, which was served under brilliant electric lights—blue, yellow, and crimson, lights which have, however, this disadvantage, that the muffled sound of the engines which supply the electric force- materially aggravates the already very bad acoustic properties of the place as a hall of audience—Mr. Gladstone's reception was enthusiastic in the extreme, hundreds of ladies in the long galleries and the nineteen hundred assembled members of the club waving their handkerchiefs with unanimous despera- tion for some five minutes together, when he entered and stood up to speak. Lord Granville, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Bose- bery, and Mr. John Morley were the principal speakers,—Lorcl Granville remarking that a seat in the Cabinet was at least a good stage-box from which to watch the drama of politics, and describing the impression made upon himself by the political obstruction which had taken place. He commented in strong language on the terrible danger to the Constitution involved in this damming-up of the stream of legislation, and on the ruin which a Conservative mind might reasonably anticipate from the time of reaction, when the torrent would break down the dam and sweep away many of the ancient landmarks.
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