Hereupon arose Mr. T. P. O'Connor in wrath,—or, at all
events, in high rhetorical fury,—to commiserate the Govern- ment on the degradation to which they had fallen. They actually offered the Irish Party the privilege of being co-plaintiffs in " a collusive action at law," in which the other plaintiff (the Government) " has been making the same charges as the defendant." The First Lord of the Treasury himself was the chief vendor of the journal in which the libel was contained. "Did anybody ever hear of such a proposition as that the two men who should be in the dock together should part company, and that one should go from the dock into the position of plaintiff?" "The right honourable gentleman does not want to play a fair game. He has invited us to the struggle. When we have accepted the invitation, he asks us to come to a game in which the dine are loaded." Yet the very men against whom Mr. T. P. O'Connor brought these gross charges, amidst the excited cheering of his party, are the men whom the Irish Members say they would trust absolutely to decide the matter fairly on their own honourable instincts !
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