Mr. Bright's first great speech on the Irish crisis was
delivered at Birmingham on Thursday, in thanking the Central Division for his re-election—without a contest. It was a very great speech, rich in its humour, vigorous in its logic, noble in its courage, large in its sagacity. As we have gone over its leading points carefully in another column, we need only say here that Mr. Bright regards the root of disorder in Ireland as economi- cal; that he traces it in great measure to the same causes as the great famine of 1847; that he entirely denies the responsi- bility of the British Government for such a calamity as that ; and that he reproaches the Irish agitators with always ignoring the economical evils to be met, and manufacturing out of these evils the ordinary political capital of agitators. He denounced
with hearty indignation" the sad, the melancholy, and the wicked teaching of this conspiracy during the last six or seven years." Mr. Bright's speech will make many a Unionist, and will stagger many a Gladstonian.
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