On Wednesday, again, the Duke of Argyll made a powerful
speech at Glasgow against the Irish policy of the Government. He• professed his sincere faith in Mr. Gladstone's earnestness and sincerity and "juvenile enthusiasm," but said that even if the Home-role policy had been brought forward by those whom we- reverence as we do our fathers, we should be bound, in the in- terests of the country, to sacrifice all personal ties in the endeavour to defeat it. He remarked strongly on the special clauses in the Bill for the protection of the Irish Judges, and observed that jury- men and others who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the popular party, in a humbler station of life, would not be so pro- tected under it ; but what sort of a party was it, from whom it was a matter of the first necessity to protect the Irish Judges P' He held very strongly that the Irish patriots would turn Mr. Gladstone's words as to our being a " foreign " people against him, and that it would be made the ground of a demand, that the Irish " tribute " to the foreigner should be withdrawn. He denied our right to divest ourselves of our dominion over Ireland, and predicted that if we did so, we should resolve Irish society into its elements. He derided the notion of our really being a foreign country to Ireland, claimed that Scotland had as much Celtic blood in it as Ireland, and Ireland as much Saxon blood as Scotland, and expressed his own great pride in the distinguished Irishmen of the past, whom we claim as our com- patriots, and in whom we glory as heartily as the Irish them- selves. It was a very forcible Unionist speech.
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