15 JULY 1916, Page 2

Lord Lansdowne made an honest, straightforward speech in which he

showed himself willing to sacrifice all his personal feelings, and, what he would- care infinitely more about, to lay himself open to the charge of sacrificing the Unionists of the South and West, men who hare 'Always looked-upon him as their friend and leader. His whole action as regards the Lloyd .George negotiations has indeed, been one of the most splendid examples ever seen of personal sacrifice for a great national end. Here is a statesman who cares nothing for office, who has no future career to think of, and who under the weight of a grievouspersonaI affliction is only anxious for retirement, exposing himself to charges of the most galling kind, and to criticismseven involving his political honour, solely out of loyalty to his colleagues in the Coalition and his devotion to his country. Then Mr: Redmond, the politician who is to benefit as much as Lord Lansdowne is to be injured by the experiment, who is to have- his false saved while Lord Lansdowne is to " los) face," has the bad taste and the gross injustice to say that Lord Lans- downe's speech was " a gross insult to Ireland." " It means a declaration of war on the Irish people and the announcennnt of a policy of coercion."