Mr. Russell's speech was full of hard facts, which show
how brilliant has been the success of the present Government in restoring tranquillity and prosperity to Ireland. The "Plan of Campaign" had failed in Tipperary, where some- thing like £50,000 had been spent in the attempt to force it on Mr. Smith-Barry's tenants, and where Archbishop Croke now mournfully admits that Home-rule is a failure. The Crimes Act, which was the head and front of the offending of the Unionist Party, had so completely succeeded, that almost the whole of Ireland had been relieved from the provisions of the second section, which had excited the most furious opposition. Mr. Russell showed that not only was agrarian crime nearly extinct, and ordinary crime lower than it had been for twenty years back, but prosperity, as measured by railway traffic, by bank balances, by savings, had largely increased. Mr. Russell did not deny that the change from Liberalism to Liberal- Conservative Unionism had involved a loss, but the loss,. though appreciable, was vastly more than balanced by the gain. He was profoundly convinced that the historian of the future would attribute to the Liberal Unionists the merit of having foregone many friendships, and passed out on a "dim and perilous way" in obedience to a patriotic duty which in the result had more than justified the great sacrifice they had made.
Previous page
