The speech of the night, however, was Mr. Henry James's
defence of Mr. Justice Keogh, which was very able, often eloquent, extremely carefully arranged, and received by the House, and especially the Opposition benches, with the most rapturous enthu- siasm. As regards its substantiation of the charges of intimi- dation against the sacerdotal party, it was simply unanswerable, though very falsely coloured, from the entire failure to apprehend the position of the Irish priests as popular leaders of the peasantry ; but when Mr. James came to the defence of Mr. Justice Keogh for his exoneration of the landlords from all systematic intimidation such as would have prevented Captain Trench from claiming the seat, his prejudices oozed out, and his speech as a moral, but not as an oratorical effort, broke down. Of course the cheering from the opposite benches over his apology for landlord dictation was wilder than ever. Mr. Plunket's speech on the same side was feebler than his reputation would have led us to expect. After a sharp discussion and a division, in which the adjournment of the debate was negatived by a majority of 291 (350 to 59), the debate was adjourned to Monday next.
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