20 AUGUST 1881, Page 2

Mr. Forster's speech on Thursday night was a very impressive

one. Nothing could be more conclusive than his proof that those who had been imprisoned for inciting others to violence, had really used language of the most illegal and reprehensible character, which it was quite necessary to stop, in the present condition of Ireland. The assertion that the speakers might have been prosecuted in the regular way for the use of such language, he admitted, but pointed out that it would only have resulted in an acquittal by an Irish jury,—so that the only mode of punishing it was under the Coercion Act. Mr. Forster and Mr. Gladstone both expressed their deep anxiety to abandon the powers conferred by the Coercion Act, as soon as they safely could. But both agreed that at the present moment it would be most dangerous for the operation of the new law to give up Ireland to the tender mercies of the agitators who most dread that law. The censure on Mr. Forster was nega- tived by 83 votes against NI