3 DECEMBER 1881, Page 2

Lord Carnarvon seems to have quitted his nlie of calm

and impartial observer. At Portsmouth on Wednesday he made a distinctly party speech, declaring the present. Government to be at once weak and revolutionary, attributing the state of Ireland (which is due to the Parnellites, now allied to the Tories), the paralysis of Parliament (which the Government is trying to remedy), and the arrest of English improvement, to the Liberals. That may be fair party fighting, though we expect better things from Lord Carnarvon ; but he proceeds to denounce the Cloture, which will restore to the House of Com- mons its liberty of action, as an interference with liberty, and to denounce Liberals for having passed thirty-eight Coercion Bills, while the Tories have only passed eleven. Which is Lord Carnarvon really intending to blame, the paralysis of Parlia- ment or its cure, the anarchy of Ireland or the efforts, so often made to restore the Island to order ? We do not like Coercion Bills, preferring severe regular laws ; but where both parties have used the same device, accusation surely becomes neither. We are sorry to see Lord Carnarvon quit the old impartial role, for which both his culture and his temperament have hitherto. inclined him. Fifty men can plead a plaintiff's cause, for one who can sum up.