Mr. T. P. O'Connor, the leader of the Irish in
England, made a speech to his constituents in Liverpool on Wednesday, full of ability and of the self-restraint which his party is just now showing. He spoke of Mr. Chamberlain as full of that huge self -confidence which "in these days is one of the best passports to political success," but which should be joined to capacity as huge. He objected to retain Irish Members in Westminster—a merely Scotch idea, he thought, based on a secret liking in Scotland for Federation—because such Members mightturn out the Foreign Minister, with whom the whole Cabinet must go, and would therefore virtually govern Great Britain. The Irish nearly did this very thing, he contended, in votes about Egypt, though they cared nothing about Egypt, and were only seeking to weaken the Ministry in Ireland. The Irish Members, if left in Westminster, would support or oppose Ministries to obtain more extended autonomy for Ireland, and every Irish measure would be passionately reviewed in England, while the Irish Legisla- ture would be reduced into a sort of Town Council. "His colleagues would resist that proposal by every means in their power." He himself looked ultimately to Federation, but it must come after years of self-government in Ireland had killed out hostility, —after, he would say, a long period of " appeasement." The speech appears to have been thoroughly well received by its, mainly Irish, audience.
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