Mr. John Morley spoke twice yesterday week on the subject
of evictions in Ireland, with what was at first regarded as a rather carefully balanced drift. In answering one question as to an eviction, he expressed his opinion that the great object in Ireland is to cultivate a "strict, and scrupulous, and literal spirit of legality." In a speech on the use of the mili- tary in Ireland to aid the civil power, which he declared to be, unless under pressing exigencies, very undesirable, he was reported as saying that "the more the circumstances of Ireland are considered, the more urgent will it appear to all those who have a sense of responsibilty to use and exercise the power of the Crown with judgment and humanity." This was under- stood to mean that Mr. Morley is disposed to pick and choose among the cases of legal eviction, which the Crown would enforce (by the civil power) and which it would not so enforce. Of course, such a doctrine as that would involve the arbitrary sus- pension of law in Ireland ; but it is clear that Mr. Morley did not intend to give the least sanction to such a doctrine. He has since explained that he was referring only to the use of military force to assist the civil power in relation to evictions when he spoke of the power of the Crown, and on this point, as even Lord Salisbury himself admits, the utmost discrimina- tion and reticence is perfectly wise and legitimate. Whenever the law gives a right, the civil power in Ireland will be used in the usual manner to enforce it.
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