On Ireland Mr. Bright spoke with warmth and with a
trace of dismay. In Ireland, he said, Tory principles had had their com- pletest victory. "They have had an Established Church to their hearts' content; they have usurped the ecclesiastical revenue of the whole nation and given it to a small section, whose whole number does not much exceed the population of Manchester and Salford. They have had any amount of soldiery and police. There is not a thing which the most obtuse and bigoted Tory can desire which has not been had in the most complete shape in Ire- land,"—and hence these tears. "I venture to say that there is no man in Ireland who is a greater traitor to the Queen and the laws of his country than a minister who continues to hold office, and who at the same time is not enlightened enough, has not moral courage enough, to recommend to the Crown and propose to Par- liament measures of justice for the pacification of Ireland." "The more I consider this question," added Mr. Bright, "the more I am impressed with its indescribable seriousness. I think of it many things, which I am sure are not without foundation, which I cannot and dare not discuss publicly before this audience." We do not know to what Mr. Bright alludes, but any way he is clearly right in demanding, with Mr. Gladstone, that remedies for the mischief shall not be postponed till the symptoms of the mis- chief have disappeared. You 'might as well turn Irishman at once, and postpone mending the broken window or the unhinged door till the one has ceased to admit the draught and the other • the pig.
