Sir William Harc ourt made one of his dashing speeches-
to his constituents at Derby on Wednesday,—one of those speeches that give the impression of politically loaded dice, because they leave out so completely all the considerations which have influenced the minds not merely of his opponents, but of all the more impartial of his friends, and exaggerate so immensely the considerations on which he and his col- leagues depend for their justification. It never occurred to him to hint that the majority for Home-rule in the House of Commons is both a very small one and one very doubtfully supported by the constituencies ; that,—as he knows, and as his chief knows,—an appeal to the constituencies on Irish Home-rule taken alone, would be sure to fail ; that the only chance of making it successful is to load the scale in which the Irish Home-rule Bill is placed with other considerations more really appreciated by the British people; and finally, that this being so, and confessedly so, a species of opposition to rushing such a measure as Mr. Gladstone's Home-rule Bill through the House of Commons, is justifiable, and even morally demanded of the Opposition, which would not be justifiable under ordinary circumstances. There is no indica- tion in Sir William Harcourt's blustering speech that any consideration of this sort had even so much as passed through his mind.
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