30 OCTOBER 1886, Page 1

In the main speech, Lord Randolph first dwelt on the

satis- factory signs in Ireland. The harvest had been good, and well gathered in. There were no serious signs of the potato famine with which Mr. Parnell had threatened them. 'Rents were, on the whole, being well paid. The landlords were behaving very well in their remissions of rent. Though the Government had given a most solemn promise to Parliament to summon it in the autumn if they wanted its aid in keeping order in Ireland, and though nothing would induce them to break it, there was at present no reason to fear that this would be necessary. The condi- tion of their political opponents was a condition of sickness. The Home-rule Liberals lived with their finger on their pulse, and were full of the morbid sensations of valetudinarians in a very bad way. Mr. Gladstone Lord Randolph described as inces- santly employed "in that reckless and ruthless devastation of the paternal acres,"—surely he knows that they are not" paternal,' —" which proves that he holds them, to use the legal title, without 'impeachment of waste ;' " and for the rest, Mr. Glad- stone is engaged in deeply studying the question whether Lord Castlereagh or Mr. Pitt was the greater scoundrel in relation to the history of the Act of Union.