On Tuesday night, Lord Randolph Churchill exploded his little mine,
with no result except that of blowing himself once more into the air. Instead of speaking, as was expected, in favour of Mr. Jennings's amendment, he spoke against Mr. W. H. Smith's resolution in the loftiest constitutional tone, reminding the Government that at the time the appointment of the Commission was under discussion, he had lodged with the First Lord of the Treasury a memorandum against it ; and posing as a former Leader of the House who had once some weight with the Ministerialists, and who might have been able to keep their majority undiminished, if he had continued to be their leader. He objected to the invention of these kinds of instruments for the crushing of political opponents,— which he assumed to have been the purpose and effect of the Commission,—ignored the singular temperateness and impar- tiality of the Report, and in a very melodramatic passage asked :—" What has been the one result ? Pigott ! What has been the result of the mountainous parturition ? A thing, a reptile, a monster,—Pigott ! What, with all your skill, all your cleverness, has been the result ? A ghastly, bloody, rotten fcetus,—Pigott, Pigott, Pigott "
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