8 APRIL 1882, Page 1

Mr. Gladstone's tone was throughout that of one who sadly

admitted the gravity of the crisis, which had developed, he said, into "a social revolution, more wide-spread than any previous Government had encountered." He even thought himself, he said, justified in quoting the opinion of the Duke of Wellington, which last year he had avoided, that in a strike against rent, "the Government would soon come to the end of its resources." He denounced in the strongest terms language like Mr. Healy's, who, in a recent letter to an Irish paper, had called the agents of Government "a gang of brigands," and he bold the Land .,.Lesguers directly responsible for the effect of their language on the people. He entirely admitted that new steps must be taken, saying that "No man can suppose that after a measure so ex- ceptional as that of last year, we can pass through the present year, or pass on to the time of the expiration of that measure, without making known to the House the other proposals we wish to make, or the reasons why no proposals are made." Coupling this sentence with Mr. Forster's admissions, we are justified in supposing that Coercion will be given up, and some measure introduced for rendering the law effective.