Mr. Morley, in his speech, bore very emphatic witness to
the provocations which the rank and file of the Tory Party offer to the Parnellite Members, and especially stated that they had cheered the suggestion that Mr. Dillon might be imprisoned under the Crimes Bill for his "Plan of Campaign." We believe that he not only might but ought to have been imprisoned for urging the "Plan of Campaign" in Ireland,—a plan on which men who can pay their debts refuse to pay them in order to help the men who cannot pay them. But we quite agree with Mr. Morley that it was very bad taste to cheer at the suggestion of Mr. Dillon's imprisonment ; for, right or wrong, it is un- questioned and unquestionable that Mr. Dillon would suffer in what he falsely supposes to be the interest of the Irish peasants and not in his own, and that at least is not a kind of suffering to triumph over. We heartily agree with Mr. Morley that attempts, whether Tory or Liberal, to provoke the Parnellites in Parliament are extremely reprehensible, and that Mr. Courtney ought to be strenuously supported in putting them down. Nevertheless, some allowance must be made for the irritation of a majority who are now sitting through their fifth month of penance, in consequence of the shameless and persistent obstruction of the Parnellite Members, assisted by a certain section of Liberals and Radicals.
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