The Home-rule Motion designed to " draw " Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman was introduced by Mr. Tuff, the Member for Rochester, in the Commons on Wednesday night, in a speech almost entirely composed of extracts from the utterances of Liberal leaders. Sir Henry, however, refused to be drawn into any explicit declaration of policy, while asserting that his views on the Irish question were well known and had not been altered. He twitted Mr. Balfour with in- consistency in being in his place during the discussion of an abstract Motion brought forward by a private Member, and described the Government as one which had forgotten how to govern, and had not learned how to resign. He declined to give that Government his prescriptions while they took his fee. After Mr. Redmond had delivered an uncompromising speech asserting that the Irish party had not moved a hair's. breadth from the position taken up by Mr. Parnell in 1886, Mr. Balfour charged Sir Henry with evasion and ambiguity, and asserted that the Conservative party was strenuously determined to uphold the unity of the Empire. Eventually, the Motion was talked out after a noisy and unprofitable evening.
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