Mr. Asquith's speech commenced by taunting Sir Henry James with
ignoring the personal accusations based on forgery. He insisted that the Attorney-General had gone further than a mere advocate would in speaking for the Times, and that the Times itself had boasted of the Attorney-General's con- viction,—the conviction of a trained judgment,—that he could prove his case. Mr. Asquith retaliated on Sir Henry James's comments on the suppression of the Land League books and correspondence, by remarking on the suppression of Houston's correspondence with Pigott; and of the Clan-na-Gael Mr. Asquith spoke lightly, as in large degree a mere " friendly society " which indulged in bombastic circulars. Mr. Asquith is always able, but there was in this speech of his a tone of levity to which we are not accustomed in his rhetoric. After the usual evening adjournment, the House was counted out, a fiasco for which the Government Whips incurred great blame.
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