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PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.I

ACCIDENT TO MR, R. T. BASSETT,|…

"FIVE BYE-ELECTIONS.

VALE OF GLAMORGAN POSTAL NOTICE.

COXGL Y CYMRY.I

BARDDONIAETH.

SELECTED POETRY,

MY FIRST TRIUMPH.

REVIEWS OF PUBLICATIONS,

LLANTWIT-MAIOR NOTES.

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LLANTWIT-MAIOR NOTES. The local members of the Primrose League held a field night at the Town Hall. Llantwit-Major, on Wednesday, the 8th inst. The chief attraction of the evening was a certain Mr. Greenwood Hartley, from the Grand Council of the Primrose League, with a magic lantern, and the oft-told tale of Irish- men's shortcomings. The speaker was blessed with a real Irish brogue, and gifted with an Irishman's native wit, which, together with a talent for buffoonery, added greatly to the amusement of the children and .young people pre- sent. If logic and argument were not in his repertoire, his vocabulary was well stowed with slang phrases and smart liighly-spicsd music-hall gag, which gave the impression to the audience that a new venture in the political arena was started—namely, that of a political cheap jack. Mr. Hartley was announced to speak on current topics. But so ignorant was the speeches on the questions of the day. that he spoke of the allot- ments question as an exploded fallacy, forgetting that the party he professes to support has adopted the question, passed one Bill with the aid of their Unionist friends, and are now about to pass an amendment to that Act. For the last fourteen days lie appears to have been suffering from somnambulism, as he boldly asserted that under our present Government wars and rumours of wars were unknown. The disaster to our forces in India, he was. judging from his statement, in total ignorance of. Would to God that the friends of the massacred Indian officers and the country at large could wake and fined it all a dream but alas facts are stubborn things, and we find the Tories of to-day, as of old. rushing into expeditions, the end of which no human power can foesee. The town of Portsmouth he held up as a model town of intelligence, blessed with its free libraries and other advantages, where working men would not know a Gladstonian from a wild beast escaped from a travelling menagerie. Well. save us, in this benighted country district, from such advantages, if their effect is to be such utter igno- rance of the affairs of our country and of the men who aspire to rule us. The eight hours question he treated as a myth, oblivious of the fact that, as the straw shows the way the wind blows, so we find the Conservative members who happen to sit for industrial centres showing us which way the land lies with the Conservative party on that question. For his enlightenment I would advise him to read the speeches of Messrs. Dugdale and Muntz, mem- bers for North Warwickshire. Mr. Hartley's lime-light views' of an Irish eviction scene was a highly-coloured picture, in which the poor evicted tenant was shewn as a hardened ruffian, while the officers of the Royal Irish constabulary were made to shine as models of long-suffering, injured innocence. This special defence of the Irish policemen reminded me of a celebrated Old Bailey criminal advocate, with this difference, that Mr. Hartley seemed to have a more intimate acquaintance with the vagaries of an Irish policeman. The performance concluded with a portrait of our gracious Majesty the Queen, when we were all asked for her sake to return Sir Morgan to St. Stephen's, to assist in maintaining her dominions intact. The taste that introduced Her Majesty's name into a political controversy was quite in conformity with the speaker's previous remarks, and was a fitting epilogue to a speech as offensive as it was devoid of political argument. PELAGIUS.

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