20 FEBRUARY 1886, Page 1

The Address was voted, and is out of the way

; but occasion was taken to raise a question the essence of which is contained in a remark by Lord R. Churchill, that no Government had ever taken power without a general outline of its policy, and which elicited two remarkable speeches. Mr. Chamberlain, while taunting the late Government with their two policies which they presented in such rapid succession, declared that the present Government was still seeking one under totally new circumstances, and that *if asked for their policy to-night, her Majesty's Government had none to give." Mr. Gladstone, who . followed, in a striking speech maintained the same thesis, declared that in the fifty-three years of his public life no subject so difficult had ever been before him, pledged himself in a passage of lofty eloquence to import into the discussion no touch of party animosity ; but showed the drift of his own opinion in an animated defence of Mr. J. Morley. He "could not presume to doubt that Mr. Morley adhered to the general spirit and purport of his expressions" (about Home-rule), and, "so far as I know the opinions of my right honourable friend, I anticipate the greatest advantage from his accession to the Government." That is clear enough to all who can read, and we only hope that Mr. Gladstone will not reject that one of Mr. Morley's opinions which deprecates, if Home- rule is conceded, any representation of Ireland in the British Parliament.