In the Howe of Commons on Tuesday, after the Address
had been moved by Mr. Hobhottse and seconded by Mr. Holland, Mr. Balfour declared that be did not intend to criticise the Foreign policy of the Government, not because he had not his own views upon it, bat because he did not think that criticisms on the policy of the Government made by the Opposition are usually at all likely to aid them in the emduct of affairs. And in pursuance of this principle, he did not utter a word on the subject of Armenia. Mr. Balfour pointed out that the diminution of crime in Ireland had been going on stealily for some years before Mr. Morley came into offi ;e, and said that he did not think it was due to any cause specially connected with the present Administration, though he congratulated Mr. Morley and the whole country on the improvement. As to the "light railways" as a remedy for English agricultural distress, he remarked that in Ireland he had always taken pains not to throw the burden of them on the distressed counties for whose benefit they were intended, and asked Sir William Harcourt whether they were to be thrown on the rates or not ; a question to which he got no reply. In the close of his sp3ech he ridiculed the programme of the Government,—a programme of work which is, on the Govern- ment's own confession, sure to be as fruitless as the plough- ing of the sands,—and told the Government that so far from the House of Lords being the sole obstacle in their way, the House of Lords would be no obstacle at all, as they very well knew, if the country were only with them. Yet if they had believed that the country was with them they would long ago have appealed to the country to overbear the opposition of the Lords.
