On Friday, October 4th, Lord Harlington addressed a great gathering
of Unionists in the Public Hall, Stirling, in a speech which for force and thoughtfulness has never been surpassed in the course of the Irish controversy. Sir William Harcourt's worship of the winning side was hit off with a touch of real humour. The Gladstonian leader had, said Lord Hartington, seized with avidity upon certain remarks of his own, in which the possibility of Unionist defeat was contemplated, for "to acknow- ledge that he may find himself some day in a minority is very much the same thing to Sir William Harcourt as to acknowledge that he may find himself in the wrong." In reality, however, to consider the possibility of defeat at the next General Election only serves to bring out the strength of the Unionist position. The Unionists are like "a great army which is defending a strongly entrenched fortress." Again and again they have gone out into the open and beaten their assailants, and the worst that can happen to them is to be made to fall back upon their impregnable stronghold.
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