Mr. Morley delivered a long and argumentative speech at Wolverhampton
on Tuesday. He declared that the true reason of the breaking down of the "Bound-Table Conference" was the irreconcilable language used by Mr. Chamberlain outside. He maintained, on the authority of Lord Spencer, that the Irish Members were not tainted with crime, and held that till -the publishers of Mr. Parnell's letter proved its authenticity, his denial was sufficient disproof. He hinted, however, a wish for a Parliamentary inquiry. He affirmed that the bulk of the Irish in America were most respectable people, but admitted that, as in every revolutionary movement, there was in this one a proportion, perhaps 10 per cent., of violent and fanatic, "in a word, of bad men." (He did not explain why the good men trusted all their subscriptions to the bad ones.) He then proceeded to denounce the Crimes Bill, which he -declared infamous, and believed to be levelled against political -freedom. The juries in Ireland, he said, were not intimidated, but sympathetic, and though the Irish were not law-abiding, it was because the law had been on the side of the strong against -the weak. (So is the law against barglary. At least, the respect- able, are generally too mach for burglars ; but only imagine calling the landlords in Ireland the strong, and the National League the weak !) Finally, Mr. Morley denounced the bank- Tuptcy clauses of Lord Cadogan's Land Bill. They would, he said, distress honest tenants and encourage bad tenants, and .demoralise Ireland in exact proportion to their success. Well, we are not altogether at variance there with Mr. Morley ; but -then, is not that tree of every Bankruptcy Bill or other law interfering with free contract ? Yet Mr. Morley holds it infamous in Ireland to enforce contracts for rent, even when the price has been settled by a disinterested tribunal.
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