Mr. Dillon, on Monday, moved the adjournment of the House,
in order to call attention to Mr. Forster's strong censure of his Kildare speech for its wickedness and cowardice. The latter charge he said he was indifferent to, but the first struck those who had accepted the same policy as well as himself ; and he denied that his speech was calculated to promote civil war, of which there was no danger, though there was a danger of "social war." We wish Mr. Dillon had explained what a social war, that is not a civil war, means ; but on that he held his peace. He had, be said, only asked Irishmen to resist a law which had worked the foulest injustice to the people of Ireland, and would continue to do so, "as long as the present Government and the present Chief Secretary retained their sway." Mr. Forster de- clined to retract a word he had said. He did not mean to describe Mr. Dillon as a coward, but men who were not cowards often • committed actions that were cowardly. He held the speech wicked, because it had a tendency to stir up an excitable people to break the law ; and cowardly, because it was so framed as to secure the speaker against prosecution. The debate was not, we think, creditable to the Irish Members, most of whom ap- peared to differ from Mr. Dillon, though almost all more or less supported or excused him. Mr. Parnell was high-minded enough to condemn strongly the inhuman suggestion that cattle grazing on the land of evicted tenants might be found not to prosper very much, though he went out of his way to find a meaning for what Mr. Dillon had said which would exclude that cruel suggestion, and merely embody the popular super- stition that such cattle did not thrive. This kindly suggestion Mr. Dillon's reply promptly negatived. It was clear that he did mean to hint what his speech was understood to hint, and he evidently regarded as hypocritical the notion that it was in- human. If you could vent your spleen by houghing cattle, instead of shooting landlords, Mr. Dillon preferred the former course. He did not even take the trouble to say that he con- demned both. Twenty-one Trish Members followed Mr. Dillon into the lobby, to show their sympathy with his speech.
