At the Cabinet Council held on Tuesday, both Lord Spencer
and Lord Hartington were escorted by detectives. It was not at first apparent why the Minister of War should be in danger of attack, but it appears that Lord Hartington's speech at Bacup has greatly offended the Irish. They fancy 'that although he steadily supported Mr. Gladstone's policy, he longs to exact vengeance for the murder of his brother. The _Irish Nation, published in New York, declares that he has sworn a vendetta against Ireland ; that his "whole mind is coloured by an engrossing desire for vengeance ;" that" he secretly gloats over the sufferings of the peasantry, and anticipates with cruel satisfaction the number of lives which will be sacrificed to the manes of his unfortunate brother." And finally, it calls upon all Irishmen to make the expulsion of Lord Hartington from the Cabinet their supreme object. The occasion for this outburst is only a speech in which Lord Hartington, wrongly, as we think, but in most moderate and statesmanlike fashion, advised that county government and the new franchise should not be granted to Ireland till the country had settled down. It is almost im- possible to reason with men liable to such accesses of fury, or indeed with men who are unable to see that if there is one English Minister to whom Ireland owes more than friendliness, it is the Marquis of Hartington. His family, at all events, has suffered enough for being innocent.
