a so-called Conservative, but from the small share he takes in 

 matters affecting the Alliance it is generally supposed that he is 

 simply thrown in for appearance sake. And how is it also that the 

 Farmers' Alliance is clearly responsible for having turned my friend 

 Mr. Clare Sewell Kead out of the House of Commons ? and let me 

 say that no more able and independent representative of the tenant- 

 farmers' interest ever sat in that House. The only reply possible 

 is, because he is a Conservative. Then, again, why does this 

 agricultural caucus never support any but Radical candidates ? Do 

 you think they would ever have dreamt of supporting men like my 

 friend Mr. Outhwaite unless he had been willing to swallow the 

 Alliance Pill, which would have made him essentially a Radical ? 

 No, gentlemen, the more yoa iuquire into it and watch its pro- 

 ceedings, the more apparent it becomes that the professions and the 

 performances of the Farmers' Alliance do not harmonise. It is an 

 organisation, however, the importance of which must not be ignored. 

 I sincerely believe it to bo most dangerous, mischievous, and insidi- 

 ous in its character. It had evidently been well considered and 

 thought out in all its bearings by its promoters before they launched it 

 on the public. I believe it to be far-reaching and widely comprehen- 

 sive in its objects. It embraces the aspirations of the Irish Home 

 Ruler by practically granting fixity of tenure without requiring 

 an equivalent from one party or granting compensation to the 

 other, which is nothing less than robbery and confiscsttion ; whilst 

 it, at the same time, plays into the hands of the Manchester 

 and Bhmingham schools, whose objects have ever been to 

 -destroy the bulwarks and undermine the foundation upon which 

 the agricultural interests of this country have stood and flourished 

 for generations past. The line of action of the Farmers' Alliance 

 is, first to create a feud between landlord and tenant ; but it 

 will not stop here, for its next move will be to set the labourer 

 against his employer, and having succeeded in producing 

 this chaotic condition of things it expects to swamp the 

 political influence of the agricultural interest and turn it in 

 its own favour. It will be a sorry day for England 

 when the three great interests — landlord, tenant, and 

 labourer — become separated, for from that day will date the down- 

 fall of British agriculture. Is not, therefore, the action of the 

 Radical party, through this instrument in their hands — the Farmers' 

 Alliance — most unpatriotic, at a moment especially when the best 

 endeavours of all right-minded men ought to be directed towards 

 cementing more closely and firmly the bonds that unite the 

 interests of landlord and tenant, and thus enabling them together 

 to tide over this serious period of unparalleled depression, instead 

 of turning it to their own selfish and political advantage ? I see in 

 the daily action of the present Government how closely allied it 

 is with the Farmers' Alliance, which is a powerful lever in the 



