At a series of meetings held last Session in the
Conference- room of the House of Commons, it was decided to form a Com. mittee for keeping the English public well informed, by inde- pendent authorities, on Irish affairs, so that they may not be compelled either to rely on sources of information which they distrust as prejudiced, or to advocate a stand-still policy for want of trustworthy advisers in relation to a policy of progress. This Committee believes that, in the interests of justice, legis- lation is still necessary to equalise the English and the Irish franchise, to create a sound county government in Ireland, to decentralise the Dublin administration, to relieve the congested districts of Ireland, to watch the working of the Land Act, to extend that of the purchase clauses, and for other like pur- poses. A great many Liberal Members of Parliament, —like Mr. Bryce, M.P. for the Tower Hamlets, for example,—have joined the Committee, and men of influence outside Parliament, like Dr. Dale and Dr. Crosskey, of Birmingham, and Mr. J. Kitson, Jun., of Leeds, have associated themselves with them. It is a Committee which may, we believe, perform a very use- ful work in preventing that mischievous reaction which the violence of the Parnellites tends too surely to. btirnulate, and we wish it all success. Its Provisional Secretary is Mr. B. F. C. Costelloe, 33 Chancery Lane.
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