The Home Secretary made a speech at the Huddersfield 'Town
Hall on Wednesday, in which he reproached the con- atittLency for admitting a Conservative, in consequence of allow- ing the Gladstonian vote to be divided between a Gladstonian Liberal and a Labour candidate, and assured his audience that there is always far more difference between the least progressive Liberal and the most progressive Con- servative than there is between the most progressive Liberal and the least progressive of the same party. Indeed, Mr. Asquith treated the Unionist party as simply 'reactionary, an absurd phrase to apply to a party which is almost equal to the Liberal party in almost all places, and much more numerous in some very populous consti- luencies. His chief endeavour was to represent the Gladstonian party as the party which identifies itself with the artisans, and he made a good deal of his own efforts to secure the artisans -against the dangers and the insanitary conditions of their occupations, declaring that the Employers' Liability Bill, as he drew it, intentionally ignored the question of insurance or -compensation, and aimed for the most part at diminishing the frequency and seriousness of accidents to life or limb, rather than at obtaining money compensations for those who had actually suffered from these accidents. He declared the -question of the best mode of dealing with the Lords to be ripe for settlement, but offered no opinion of his own as to the best solution of it. On the whole the speech was not an important -contribution to political discussion. It amounted to very little beyond the assertion that he has used the administrative power of the Home Office, to protect the artisan from the =selfishness of his employer,—which is true, but the Liberal Ministers are not all Mr. Asquiths, and even energy is not identical with statesmanship.
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