The annual meeting of the Two Thousand of Birmingham was
held on Wednesday, with Mr. Schnadhorst in the chair. The subject of discussion was the Home-rule Bill, and it was soon apparent that the Association intended to do a very diffi- cult thing,—to support Mr. Gladstone, and yet approve Mr- Chamberlain's secession from his Ministry. They, however, accomplished their end by voting first their "unabated confi- dence" in Mr. Chamberlain, and their conviction that "he had been guided by a high sense of honour and public duty ;" and secondly, by passing a resolution expressing confidence in "Mr. Gladstone in his effort to make a permanent settlement of the Irish Question," but suggesting that amendments should be made in the Bill. These amendments were not formulated, but it was thoroughly understood that the principal one was the one advocated by Dr. Dale, the retention of the Irish Members in Westminster. Dr. Dale wanted the whole 103, his only argument being that taxation without representation was tyranny. Will he, perhaps, define what representation without taxation is, for the Irish representatives could vote an increase to our taxation, but not to their own, which is fixed by the Bill P The meeting was entirely hostile to the Land-purchase scheme.
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