On Saturday evening Lord Salisbury, in a speech made at
the inaugural banquet of the Irish Loyalist Club held at the Hotel Metropole, reviewed the nine years of struggle over the Union, and declared the prospect to be decidedly promising. The disappearance of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Gladstone had been a great gain to the Unionist cause, and the pendulum, "that great condition of modern British politics, is asserting its sway." On the plan of confusing the issue of Home-rule with other questions—viz., the policy of "filling up the cup" —Lord Salisbury was very happy. "The House of Lords are not such idiots as to pay any attention to an appeal to the country conceived in that fashion." Lord Salisbury ended by pointing out that the Nationalist movement had come down to being "nothing but a mode of capturing for the purposes of the Radical party of the day a certain useful number of South of Ireland votes." The speech was throughout an excellent one, and not marred by a single indiscretion.
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