Mr. Parnell, in moving, on Monday, the amendment which condemned
the Government for the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and for the " harsh, partial, and mischievous " conduct of the Government in enforcing it, made a great parade of the wish of the Irish Members to facilitate in every way the legislation of the House, and to make the coming Session a great contrast to the last, when they were absolutely bound to resist the " cruel Coercion Bill to the very last." He particularly wished to assist the Government in so amending Procedure that, when they should be relegated to the Opposition benches, the Gladstonians and Parnellites might have an effective instrument in their hands with which to put down Conservative and Unionist obstruction. Mr. Parnell gave a long account of his famous negotiations with Lord Carnarvon in 1885, when, according to him, Lord Carnarvon's views on Home-rule for Ireland were absolutely identical with his own. He described Lord Carnarvon's inter- view with the Mayor and Corporation of Limerick, and his indulgence to them in their express determination to disobey the law ; and he declared that Lord Carnarvon had expressed his intention to liberate the Crossmaglen prisoners, as convicted on insufficient evidence.—though, in point of fact, they never were liberated. Mr. Parnell then passed into an attack on Mr. Balfour's administration, which went into selected details of a very minute character, and ended by contrasting Mr. Balfour with the late Mr. Forster to the advantage of the latter, of whom he said,—" That was a man." Mr. Parnell appears to believe in the motto, De mortuis nil nisi bonum, especially when it can be so used as to signify, De vivis nil nisi maluns.
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