The Duke of Argyll found no opponent on Thursday, when
he moved his vote of confidence in the Irish policy of the Government. He made a very amusing speech, in which he criticised sharply Mr. Gladstone's Home-rule Bill and his view of Irish history, remarking of the former that it reminded him of a cottage built by an old woman on the edge of the ocean, which she said would be most comfortable if it only kept out the ocean, and remarking, with regard to Mr. Glad- stone's conception of Ireland as being very happy till England conquered the country, that if Mr. Gladstone had read the history of "The Four Masters," he would not have thought so. In this book there was an account of one of the chiefs who died at Rome, on whose tomb was placed the inscription, —" To our great noble and predatory lord." There was no history to sustain the theory that there had been a peaceful and happy Ireland before the English conquest. The vote of confidence passed nem, eon.
Previous page
