4 MARCH 1882, Page 1

Then came Mr. Gladstone's great speech on the question of

policy, one of the most powerful of his many powerful efforts. He denied any intention to censure the action of the Lords, apart from the necessary censure on the policy which their decision tended to sanction. This reassertion of its declared policy by the Commons was essential to reassure the people of Ireland, when a heavy blow had been struck, by the appoint- ment of the Lords Committee, not only at the authority of the Executive Government in Ireland, but at the authority of the judicial administrators of the Land Act. He showed by precedents, both in great English and in great Irish crises, that the Executive Government is bound to come to the House of the Representatives of the people—its natural and legitimate resort—for a renovation of its influence, when any other power in the State strikes a blow at that influence. " That other Assembly, no matter how venerable or how distinguished it may be, is not the Assembly that can decide great issues of the national fortunes, or decide great political crises, when they arise." It was impossible, in case of danger or disaster, to shift responsibility to what is called " another place." The nation expects from the Commons the maintenance of its fortunes and the custody of its interests, and it was because these were imperilled, that the Government came back to the Commons for new strength. The blow was not only against 'the Executive Government,—that, perhaps, they could have borne,—but against the Judges appointed under the Land Act,—Judges from whom no appeal to the House of Lords was, under the statute, permitted. These Judges would have had the right to say, as Chief Justice Holt once said to the House of Lords, "By the House of Lordn I

kok to be protected, and not to be assailed, and I will not assign the reasons on which I founded my judgment." Land- lords were already writing to their agents not to agree with their tenants out of Court, till it was seen what would come of the Lords Committee. In short, the northern population of Ireland, —the only part of Ireland where we could as yet look for popular support,—were in danger of being alienated by this throwing of doubt over the Land Act. On the whole, no orator ever yet made the House of Commons realise so profoundly as Mr. Gladstone did on Monday the responsibility which they incur and the power which they wield; nor could any orator have conveyed with more striking effect, and yet with more ceremonious deference, the absolute incapacity of the House of Lords to back its mad attempt to unravel the work of last year, by eliciting any response of national feeling or resolve.