Mr. Chamberlain's speech, in reply to Mr. E. J. Morton,
was the most powerful speech of Tuesday's debate, and he showed conclusively how imaginary were the facts as to evictions on which the Gladstonians found the indictments which they go about the country spreading far and wide, and assuring the rural constituencies that it would be pos- sible to parallel in hundreds of cases. Mr. E. J. Morton, when pressed for an instance of the shameless evictions which he had declared to be so frightfully numerous, gave the case of Mrs. Ahearn, a widow; and Mr. Chamberlain explained that she had never been a tenant at all on the incriminated Glensharrold estate. She had never had even a year's tenancy on it. All the improvements had been made by Mr. Delmege, who allowed her to have an eleven months' tenancy and no more, that she might not have the claim to be a tenant. But Mr. Chamberlain also showed how anxious he had been to turn Mr. Morley's Bill into a voluntary from a compulsory Bill, and how greatly he had been disappointed by the refusal of the Government under the influence of their Irish allies to accept the compromise. And yet for this speeeb,—especially, we suppose, for exposing the ignorance of the Gladstonian orators on matters of fact,—Mr. Chamberlain was attacked by the Daily Chronicle after a fashion which we hope is rare among journalists, while the Westminster Gazette unearthed an oldish attack on Mr. Chamberlain by Mr. E. J. Morton, and conjectured that this masterly exposure of Mr. E. J. Morton's ignorance was due to nothing nobler than vindictive personal feeling. There appears to be no imputation so discrediting that the Gladstonians will not launch it at Mr. Chamberlain without even a pretence of evidence.
