The week has been marked by many secessions from the
ranks of Mr. Gladstone's supporters on the Irish Question. Thus, two men of some mark as Liberals, and as thorough-going Liberals, both of them Members for Eastern-county con- stituencies,—Mr. Quilter and Mr. Herbert Cozens-Hardy, the former the Member for the Sudbury division of Suffolk, and the latter the Member for North Norfolk,—have announced that they cannot vote for the second reading, though Mr. Quilter appears to think that if certain changes were made,—all of them, in our opinion, changes for the worse,—he might be able to vote for it. The rumours as to negotiations between Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Gladstone, intended to smooth the way to Mr. Chamber- lain's adhesion, have been numerous, but we hardly think authentic. So far as we can judge at the present moment, it seems probable that the Birmingham party, as it is called, will vote with Lord Hartington, in which case the Bill is likely to be defeated even on the second reading. In that ease a disso- lution will probably soon follow.
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