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These facts furnish us with three reflections.
1. That with the possession of power for nearly twenty years past, with an ample working majority, and the cry of Retrenchment everlastingly on their lips, our Liberal friends have not done much to curtail extravagant estimates, or reduce expenditure.
2. It is certain Mr. Bright has never worked to check within the House of Commons the extravagance he denounces out of it.
3. Mr. Gladstone with his majority of sixty[1] is more to blame than the minority for any increase in the budget, he chooses to criticise solely for electioneering purposes.
Such are the simple but weighty considerations which certainly prevent my vote being given to such a political combination.
Can it be that on religious grounds you will indentify yourself with a cause which is supported by a Pusey, a Spurgeon, and a Bradlaugh? Which will muster among its forces every returned convict, and lawless man, every one faithless to his duties, as well as the enemies of all religion? The Socinian, the Socialist, the Deist, the Atheist, the Revolutionist, the Leveller, the Doctrinaire will all be found in your
- ↑ Among whom were Mr. Childers, Mr. Stansfield, and Lord Hartington. They seem to think, that though the Commons have the power of the purse, the House of Commons is not the place to exercise it.
