Mr. Balfour made an admirable speech at Lord Aber- gavenny's,
Eridge Park, Tunbridge Wells, on Bank Holiday to several thousands of people. " If a half, or a quarter, or a hundredth part of the accusations made against us were true," he said, " if it were tree that the Union can only be main- tained by taking away the civil rights of the Irish people, by putting in prison men who are innocent, by attacking those who are guilty of no other offence than that of differing from us in political opinion, if a hundredth part of all that were true, I would not lend a hand to maintaining the Union. I would rather it were sacrificed, and that the greatness of this Empire sank into the dust, than that we should sully our hands by the political crimes of which we are accused by our political opponents." There Mr. Balfour spoke out the heart of the whole Liberal Unionist Party, as well, we believe, as of that of the Tories themselves. Mr. Balfour went on to say that, so far from relying, as Sir William Harcourt accused the Government of doing, on the Times' accusations, he had never relied upon them. He did not rely on the comparatively ancient history of 1881 and 1882 at all. He knew by their own boasts that the Parnellites had been using, and using openly, "the most scandalous forms of intimidation" even in the last year, having initiated the "Plan of Campaign" and defended it; so that it was quite unnecessary to prove accusations of any older date. But the extraordinary tactics of the Opposition in resisting inquiry did suggest, even if nothing else suggested, that there was something worth concealing which it was feared that the Commission would discover.
