Yesterday week, the debate oft the Address turned wholly on
Irish policy,—on the question whether the distress in Ireland had been adequately dealt with by the Government, and on the relative responsibility of the Tories and Liberals for Home-rule. Mr. Plunket spoke with force and vivacity on the Tory side, depicting the helplessness of many small farmers, even under such good landlords as Sir Arthur Guinness, when any failure of crops occurred, and deprecating the extension of peasant proprietorship as a remedy for Irish miseries. Mr. Plunket admitted that " the origin of the Home-rule movement had with it a great many Conservatives," but "they supported Home- rule for a very short time." Mr. Kiug-Harman was one of them, but he had been made Lord-Lieutenant of Roscommon, not for his Home-rule views, but in spite of them, for his large property in the county, and his high character and activity on the Bench. Then Mr. Plunket referred to the "eminent success" achieved by Mr. Sullivan in reconciling the Liberals and Home-rulers in Liverpool, amidst the vocifer- ous cheers of the Tories, to whom the success of Mr. Whitley had just been made known. Mr. Sullivan replied that the Irish Conservatives constituted the immense majority of the first Home-rule organisation ; that it was a Conservative who paid for the election of the Fenian O'Donovan Rosso.; and that the attempts of the Conservatives to inspire confidence in the National party were not made in secret, but publicly, and were known to all the world. The debate was adjourned.
