Mr. Balfour made a good speech on Wednesday at a
dinner given to him and the Conservative candidates of England and Wales at St. James's Hall by the National Union of Conserva- tive and Constitutional Associations. Mr. Balfour thought that what the Government had done in the management of foreign affairs, and in strengthening the Army and Navy, was much more important for the country than what they had done in Ireland; but no doubt the attacks levelled against him for the Irish Administration had been much severer than those directed against the more important departments of State, though the country, in estimating the services of the Govern- ment, would certainly not ignore these more important achieve- ments. The Gladstonians were hoping to replace the thread- bare war-cry of " Mitchelstown," by the more novel one of " Tipperary ; " but Mr. Balfour did not think the substitute a very successful one. No one was killed, and no one seriously in- jured at Tipperary ; and while the Parnellites cry out that the Government, with the meanness characteristic of it, had given orders that the police should specially spare Members of the House of Commons, Mr. Fowler, one of Mr. Gladstone's most conspicuous lieutenants, maintains that the cowardly and brutal Chief Secretary had given special orders to the police to outrage and insult the Irish Members of Parliament. Hence it was obvious that the two wings of the hostile party are not even agreed on their indictment. That does not look like making " Tipperary" a telling war-cry.
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