Mr. Balfour made a very important announcement at the third
annual meeting of the Women's Liberal Unionist Asso- ciation on Wednesday, after expressing his hearty sympathy with Miss Tod's attack on the English Nonconformists for deserting so strangely the cause of their Irish Nonconformist brethren. The condition of Ireland is now so satisfactory, he said, that he saw no reason why the whole of Ireland should not, with the exception of one county and a few baronies, be relieved from the operation of those special provisions of the Crimes Act of 1887 to which most objection was taken at the time it was passed,—those provisions which it takes a special proclamation of the Government's to apply or to cancel. This is, in fact, saying that the Crimes Act of 1887,—aided most powerfully, of course, by the break-up of the Nationalist Party,—has succeeded completely in restoring order in Ireland. Mr. Balfour stated that, while there are 3,019 persons in prison in Ireland under the ordinary law, there are only 21 persons in prison under the Crimes Act. It seems to be as true that when agitators fall out, quiet men come by their own, as it is that when thieves fall out, honest men come by their own. Instead of twenty years' firm government, Ireland has had only five, and yet five have sufficed. But none the less the Conservatives are not satisfied, and. think the Govern- ment deserving of nothing but reproaches.
