The Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech, though interrupted most discreditably,—by
Sir W. Harcourt amongst others,—was a great and impressive effiwt. He remarked on the dismay with which Mr. Gladstone's identification of himself with the Par- nellites had been received by the bulk of his party, and especially on the shrinking with which his attacks on the police, his incredulousness of every official statement, and his marked cordiality towards the Parnellite enthusiasts, had been ob- served. Mr. Goschen pointed out the omission of the most important fact in Mr. Gladstone's account of the Mitchelstown affair, especially of the reasons which compelled the constabu- lary to fire ; and noted Mr. Gladstone's description of the agents of the Government as Mr. Balfour's "minions and myrmidons." The Chancellor of the Exchequer asked Mr. Morley what could be more monstrous than to exempt Members of Parliament from arrest for law-breaking, as Mr. Morley had proposed, during the Session,—i.e., to show special favour "to law-makers if they became law-breakers,"—and he showed how unblushing it is to propose that Ireland should be left without those resources which her people need, only because the Home-rulers wish the grant not to be sullied by coming from the hands of an Imperial instead of a local Parliament. It was a statesmanlike speech of the first order.
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