On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the House of Com- mons
was occupied with the discussion of the Irish Estimates. Though a certain number of factitious grievances of the usual kind were aired by the Irish Members, there was little real life in the debate, except during a scene between Mr. T. W. Russell and the Parnellites. The point in dispute was of no import- ance, but the incident illustrates the bitterness of feeling which exists between the North and South. We are told that it is mere want of intelligence to doubt that the most perfect harmony would exist between the Ulster of the Plantation and the rest of Ireland in the event of Home-rule. Yet the moment that Mr. Russell, who is the very incarnation of the spirit of the Protestant democracy of the North, opens his mouth, the Nationalists are thrown into a frenzy of hate which is a hundred times more intense than that expressed for Mr. Balfour. The fact that the battering-ram used to effect an entrance into the houses of tenants unlawfully retaining possession of their landlords' property had not been included in the Estimates, was represented as a monstrous piece of Saxon oppression ;—a somewhat Hibernian contention, since, had it appeared there, the veryfirst thing the Nationalists would have done would, have been to move to disallow expenditure on such an item. Beyond this, some talk about the Times, a scene with Mr. Balfour, and the usual complaints that the Irish Constabulary is very costly, the debates were singularly barren of interest.
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