On Wednesday, Mr. Chamberlain, addressing a large public meeting at
the Albert Hall, Nottingham, noticed that though
" the Irish Question has occupied almost exclusively the field of politics " for the last three years, we are no nearer." a clear conception of the points of difference than we were before ;" and " that much of the discussion which has taken place on the other side has been rather for the purpose of darkening counsel and confusing the issue." We had a plan three years ago ; but that plan has now, in racing language, been " scratched," and nothing has been 'put in its place. " When we ask for a new plan in the place of the one they have with- drawn, they refuse to give us any satisfaction. In these circumstances, the political contest becomes a mere ignoble struggle for place and power?' The Opposition, Mr. Chamber- lain went on, rely upon three things,—upon the shibboleth of party names, And their claim to the good-will Of the Liberal Party; upon the dislike of coercion; and upon_ the wrongs once endured by the Irish tenants, but in recent years either remedied or removed altogether. The speech was throughout brilliant and effective, the -descrip- tion of the Irish Party as a"' kept party," in reference to the negotiations at the Chicago Convention in 1886, being par- ticularly happy. Mr. Dillon, too, will find it hard to answer Mr. .Chamberlain's declaration that but for the apposition organised by himself and his friends, eviction for the so-called unjust arrears of rent -would have been put a stop to.
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