Mr. 3/Corley's reply was very artificial. He began with a
tu quo que, charging Mr. Balfour with having applied the gag to the Bill for the creation of the Parnell Commission, for- getting that that Bill had received the support of both sides of the House, and had then been obstructed so that it would never have passed without the closure. Mr. Morley evidently spoke with but half a heart. He knew that he had not been allowed to meet the Unionists half-way, and gain relief for the more innocent and better class of evicted tenants, and that he was now asking for the inclusion of the cases of emigrated Irishmen, whom he himself bad originally described as outside the scope of the Bill. Mr. Chamberlain replied to him in the best speech of the evening. He pointed out that the need for full discussion was partly to inform the constituencies of the objections to this most dangerous measure, whose very title was misleading, since it was now to be stretched to include the case of persons who had never been evicted at all, and the cost of whose reinstatement had been so tremendously under- estimated that it was first proposed to make £100,000 the limit of that cost, and then found necessary to raise it to £250,000. After a frivolous and irrational speech from Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Courtney delivered a virtuous homily to both sides of the House on the immorality of not coming to some agreement such as had been shadowed forth on Friday week, without drawing the *obvious inference from what happened that the Irish party had virtually vetoed that arrangement. Then Mr. Balfour'a amendment was rejected by a majority of 43 (217 to 174). On Wednesday, the Conservatives and Unionists 'did not join in the debate, and many provisions of the Bill passed at lightning speed. The Committee stage was completed on Thursday.
