Mr. Goschen's final speech in Aberdeen, delivered on Thursday, was
an answer to Mr. Morley's charges against the Unionists. After explaining that, in spite of Mr. O'Brien's pro- fessions of love for the English minority, the English majority really could not love that " patentee of vitriolic rhetoric," Mr. Goschen turned to the Land Question, declaring that the Government held this to be the key of the situation, that they were as eager as Mr. Morley to secure to every Irishman his chance of a home and of a plot of ground of his own, and that they were actively engaged on plans for this end. He hinted that the first of these plans would be an extension of the Ashbourne Act ; but added that, while securing to the Irishman his farm, the State must secure that he held it as a freeman, and not as a slave to any Association which would bid him pay or refrain from paying. He added some remarkable words, showing that, in his judgment, though it would be dangerous to make the State a great proprietor in Ireland if Home-rule were granted, it would not, if the existing system were maintained, be unsafe to extend the Ashbourne law. Mr. Dillon's advice to repudiate the instalments would be rejected, because the tenant would lose not only his holding, but also his tenant- right. It is clear that Mr. Goschen, at least, does not forget the dependence of Home-rule upon the agrarian quarrel.
