On Wednesday, Mr. O'Brien, the new Member for Mallow, made
of his maiden speech a furious attack on the administration of the Crimes Prevention Act, which he declared to be used for the condemnation and execution of innocent men by packed juries and judges whose ferocious partizanship disgusted and revolted public feeling. He defended his support of James Carey as a municipal Councillor of Dublin, and even judging by the light of recent events expressed no regret for it. His speech, which was received with the greatest sang-froid by the House, was one of the most threatening ever heard in the House of Commons. Mr. Plunket, of course, supported the demands of Mr. Gibson; while Mr. George Russell, following the line he has always taken on Irish affairs, deprecated any further grant of local self-government to Ireland for an indefinite period, which he appeared to fix at something like thirty years ; while Mr. Jesse Collings went even further into error in the opposite direction,—that is, on the side of imprudent concession to Home-rule. Wednesday's debate was not marked by a single statesmanlike speech.
