28 SEPTEMBER 1889, Page 2

Mr. Leonard Courtney, speaking at Liskeard on Wednes- day, treated

his hearers to one of those massive pieces of oratory in which he excels. The chief points in the address, which was mainly occupied with Ireland, we have dealt with at length elsewhere. Doubtless there was nothing very new in pointing out how hurry runs through and vitiates the whole of Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy ; how, when the eighty- five Parnellites were elected in Ireland, he immediately occu- pied himself with the thought of how to get rid of them; how he produced his Colonial form of Home-rule in a hurry; and how, when that was rejected by the nation, he was equally precipitate in accepting the advice of Mr. Stead to convert his scheme into a federal shape. Still, these facts gained something like a new significance from the force with which they were stated. Throughout Mr. Courtney's speech there was a tone of conscious superiority which, though it will no doubt irritate intensely many of those who most agree with him, is to us not only amusing, but a real source of satisfaction. When so many statesmen seem to despair of their own powers, a little cocksureness is infinitely refreshing.