Some of the Irish Members got up an exciting "
scene " in the House of Commons on Monday, in denouncing the address of Mr. Justice Keogh to the Grand Jury of Londonderry, on March 18. Mr. Justice Keogh was reported to have spoken disrespectfully in that address of the Irish festival of the preceding day (St. Patrick's Day), but his own letter to Mr. Lowther, the Secretary for Ireland, denied any reference to the national festival, and declared that he spoke only in deprecation of party- riots and the celebrations of anniversaries of political disloyalty. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. O'Connor Power, however, would not hear of this explanation, Mr. Sullivan declaring that Mr. Justice Keogh• had been guilty of equivocation, and that he would prove that the -construction the Judge now wished to put on his own words was entirely indefensible ; while Mr. O'Connor Power described Mr. Justice Keogh as nothing better than a "religious and political firebrand," and quoted an opinion expressed by some unnamed gentleman who had on one occasion heard the Judge use words- which appeared to him (the witness in question) -to be
a distinct recommendation to "assassination." Mr. O'Connor Power asserted that Mr. Justice Keogh had gained a seat in that House, by the profession of principles which he had repudiated in the most violent language ever since he had been connected with the Government, and went on in this strain till he was at last stopped by reiterated remonstrances• from the Speaker. It is obvious that such speeches as this should only be made in justification of a motion for an address to the Crown for the removal of Mr. Justice Keogh from his seat on the Bench, and that if any such motion is in contemplation, it is most im- proper and unfair to anticipate it by these irregular declarations, which no one is prepared or in a position to answer. The most active of the Irish Members are, in one sense, " good haters," but they have not the gift of knowing either what is opportune or what is, in the Biblical sense, " convenient." Their explosions of wrath are as irregular as volcanic eruptions, and as incom- petent as such eruptions to achieve specific and limited ends.
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