The Government on Monday receded from their proposal to erect
a statue to Oliver Cromwell. Mr. Justin McCarthy opposed it on the ground that Cromwell had been a deter- mined enemy of the Irish people,—was indeed to them what the Duke of Alva was to the people of the Netherlands. He could not understand how a Home-rule Government could propose such a vote, which it was a sacred duty for Irishmen to resist. Mr. Morley made a fine speech in reply, defending Cromwell as a great man, though his treatment of Ireland, " where he confiscated too much or exterminated too little," was a blot upon his fame. He was the founder of the naval greatness of England ; he made England greater in Europe than she had ever been before or since; he was a great ruler, a great statesman, and his name was reverenced wherever the English language was spoken,—a statement met with cries from the Irishmen, who, as Mr. Morley had for- gotten, speak English too. He had thought Irishmen might have allowed a statue of Cromwell as they had allowed a statue of William III.; but as this proposal was resisted by Irishmen and Tories, and could not now be a national recog- nition of a great ruler and Prince, the Government with- drew it. Sir William Harcourt concurred, also admitting his entire ignorance of Irish national feeling about Cromwell, but pointedly reserving his own opinion and that of his colleagues as to the character of the man they had designed to honour.
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