At the Guildhall, Plymouth, on Wednesday evening, Mr. Chamberlain addressed
an enthusiastic meeting of over five thousand people, in a speech pre-eminently vigorous and spirited. With a fine scorn, he flung back Mr. Gladstone's. advice to the Liberal Unionists to make their peace with their old associates before it was too late. Does Mr. Gladstone, be asks, imagine that the Liberal Unionists are like his own followers, or like the hero of Mr. Lowell's lines P-
" I'm an Eclectic; as to choosin'
'Twat right and wrong, I'm plaguey loth ;
I leave a side which looks like losin', But when in doubt I stick to both."
They are not going to be frightened into surrender by the prospect of defeat. "If we are to be beaten, we will take our beating standing up and not lying down." Mr. Chamberlain's summary of the various phases of the Home-rule Question is too detailed to condense, but was noticeable for his quotation from the minutes taken by him at the Round-Table Conference, the break-up of which he attributes to the jealousy of the New Radicals. Among these minutes occurs the following note :-- "Not one word was said about a Parliament in Dublin and an Executive dependent on it." Still, we cannot help thinking that Mr. Chamberlain is mistaken in fancying any agreement could have been come to as the result of the Round-Table Conference. Mr. Gladstone was from the first determined that he would make no real concessions to the Liberal Unionists. He knew that he could not have the support of both them and the Parnellites, and preferred the latter, as counting some twenty more on a divisiou. Mr. Chamberlain's assertion that forms of bribery were used in the attempt to overthrow the
Union similar to those employed to bring it about, has been received with a great show of indignation. If he is wrong, then all we can say is that the great division in 1886 was the first occasion when Members were not made to understand that supporting their party was absolutely necessary if they wished to receive• Peerages and Baronetages. Those who
expected titles knew perfectly well that they could only get them by voting straight.
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