In the House of Commons, after very brief speeches from
Mr. Legh and Mr. T. H. Robertson, who moved and seconded the Address, Sir William Harcourt, in a very moderate speech, remarked that if it were true that Nature abhors a vacuum, Nature must on this occasion have formed a very unfavourable opinion of the Speech from the Throne, and asked the questions concerning Armenia and Chitral which were the chief subject of the speeches in the Upper House. Mr. Balfour answered these questions in the same manner as Lord Salisbury, though laying special emphasis on in- formation received from India which had not been laid before the late Government, and which had weighed heavily in favour of the retention of Chitral. Mr. John Redmond's amendment to the Address, inviting the Government to declare themselves at once on Irish Home - rule, Irish Land - law reform, the Evicted Tenants question, and other Irish matters, elicited a very clear and able address from Mr. J. W. Balfour, in which he promised the most steady resistance to Home-rule; assured the House that the non-contentious clauses of Mr. Morley's Land Bill should be brought in and passed next Session; and, as regards Evicted Tenants, that as much should be done as could be done by a Government which did not propose to enforce their return to the holdings from which they had been evicted, except with the consent of the landlords. In the course of the subsequent debate, Dr. Tanner called one of Mr. Harrington's statements " a lie," and was called to order by the Speaker, and on re- fusing to apologise, was directed to retire from the House, which he did in a very violent manner, after calling the House "a dirty House,"—an epithet which, coming from him, almost persuaded the House of Commons to accept it as at least partially appropriate.
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