On Thursday, Lord Randolph Churchill addressed a large Unionist demonstration
in the Grand Theatre, Stalybridge, and made some effective, if rather coarse, hits. Mr. Gladstone called his Act a " grand Act." It was a grand thing to betray the Ulster Protestants into the hands of their hereditary foes ; to try to sell the Irish loyal minority into slavery for the purpose of retaining power by means of Irish votes ; and to suspend in Ireland all security for freedom, for civil and religious liberty, and for the peaceful possession of property. "It was a grand thing to turn all the Civil servants of the Crown in Ireland upon the world, making most miserable provisions for them, many of them in the prime of life, but in such a position that they would have great difficulty in finding new occupations." It was a grand thing to throw over the police, and to place an additional burden of £400,000 a year on the taxpayers of Great Britain. That was the note in which Lord Randolph's speech was pitched,—an attractive one for men who cannot taste their food without condiments. Lord Randolph ended by noting "the wonderful feeling of tranquillity" that has come over the country since the Lords rejected the Bill. The denunciations levelled against them have been absurd. The lines in " The Ingoldsby Legends,' describing the effect of the Archbishop of Rheims's curse, might well be applied to the curses of the Home-rulers :- " But what gave rise to no little surprise, No one seemed one penny the worse."
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