Lord Salisbury also made his usual attack on the Irish
policy of the Government, declaring that the Burlesque which should be entitled "Ireland Governed by Irish Ideas" had been con- cluded, as it had been begun, by "an explosion." He remarked with great bitterness on Mr. Dodson's declaration at Scar- borough that the Liberals intended to clear their conscience with regard to Ireland, asserting that the most saintly Liberal conscience ought to be satisfied by this time, and that if it was not, and if the conscience was to go on, there would very soon be a renewal of disorder. The Marquis concluded by expressing his conviction that "the growing Conservatism of the country" was largely due to the lessons that Liberal inconsistencies teach,—which may be true, whether "the growing Conservatism of the country" be a fact or an illusion. If it be a fact, it is, we suppose, due to a greater dissatisfaction with the Liberals than with the Conservatives ; if it be an illusion, there is no formal inaccuracy, though there is something misleading, in suggesting that that which has no existence is due to an imaginary cause. Ex nihilo, nihil fit.
