As we assumed last week that Mr. Courtney, the Chairman
of Committees, had good grounds for his severe language to Mr. De Lisle, M.P. for the Loughborough Division of Nottinghamshire, when he stated that Mr. De Lisle's conduct had frequently been disorderly, it is only fair to give the substance of Mr. De Lisle's letter to last Saturday's Times on the subject:—" I beg leave," he says, " with all respect to Mr. Courtney, and I hope with due consideration to the difficulties of the situation, and his chivalrous feeling towards a defeated and discredited party, to point out that Mr. Healy was permitted to address the Committee five different times on the subject of my alleged offence, and that when I arose twice to make a personal explanation, I was ordered to sit down unheard, and my conduct stigmatised frequently disorderly.' Ever since I have been in the House, the Irish Separatists have been in the habit of making a dead set at me, and imputing every interruption and nearly every sound that comes from our side below the gangway to me ; so that the cry of ' De Lisle' has become a sort of Parliamentary safety-valve for their excited feelings. No doubt it annoys them to be confronted by a Catholic Unionist ; but I must protest against the unfairness with which I was treated last night. Unionist Members are subjected to the grossest and most persistent interruptions from the Irish Members, as was the ease with Mr. Arthur Balfour last night. But if a Conservative Member ventures to say, ' Oh ! oh 1' or ' No ! no or' Divide, divide !'—observations which are perfectly Parliamentary (see Mr. Peel's speech of March 17th, 1871, as reported in 'Hansard '),—he is at once the sub- ject of an organised attack from the Parnellites. I absolutely deny that I have violated Parliamentary decorum, and many Members could testify to the accuracy of my statements." Certainly it is our own impression that, both as regards Mr. Courtney and as regards the Speaker, the Parnellites have been treated with exceptional tenderness, not with exceptional severity.
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