The long and dreary Session ended even worse than it
began. It began with eleven nights' debate on the Address,—that is, with a waste of ten nights,—and it ended with a waste of we know not how many nights in wrangling over proposals to reduce the Estimates,—proposals which were in no sense serious financial proposals, but mere occasions for vituperation against the Government. On Friday week, too, Dr. Tanner secured his suspension from the service of the House by first inti- mating that Mr. Balfour was a swindler and a thief, and then openly calling him a coward and a liar, and refusing to with- draw. Dr. Tanner did not lose much by getting suspended, and we fear that he has gained popularity in Ireland by this refined and manly conduct, for the Irish constituencies seem to be as proud of men who hurl such epithets at the Irish Secretary, as some Red Indian tribes are of those warriors who are most successful in scalping their enemies. And yet the Irish understood what it was to have educated and learned bodies before we English understood it, and in some respects are to the present day quicker at appreciating the difference between coarse abuse and fair raillery, than we are. Probably they .know the difference well enough, but, in the blindness of their hatred, think any sort of brickbat good enough th fling at Mr. Balfour.
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