Mr. Dillon made a great scene in the House on
Tuesday. The Trowbridge Chronicle had stated that when an attack made upon a party of Irish school-children and on a young lady who was with them, a daughter of an agent of Lord Sligo, was referred to in the House of Commons, the statement that this young lady was seriously hurt was met with ironical laughter from Mr. John Dillon and some of the Irish Members. This statement Mr. Dillon contradicted with the utmost vehemence. Four other Members rose to attest the truth of the report so far as regarded the laughter, though none of them attributed the laughter personally to Mr. Dillon. Thereupon, Mr. Dillon demanded protection from insult, accused the Speaker (who had ex- plained the true state of the case, had absolutely accepted Mr. Dillon's repudiation of the laughter on his own behalf, and had even said that he did not understand the laughter to have been at all necessarily intended as directed at the injury to the young lady) of dealing out a different measure to Irish Members from that which he deals out to other Members of Par- liament, a most unjust and disorderly remark, which, fortunately for him, the Speaker did not catch. The Speaker seems to us to have shown to various Irish Members lately,—especially to Dr. Tanner and Mr. Dillon,—a curious excess of lenity.
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