Mr. Gladstone's speech, in reply (which, by the way, is
far better reported in the Daily News than it is in the Times), was one of the most brilliant and effective he has ever made. He balanced Lord Salisbury's warnings against too high-handed a policy in Egypt against Sir Stafford Northcote's solemn injunc- tion to be vigilant and strong, admitted fully the right of the four Powers to be heard as to any change in the arrangements for safeguarding the position of Egypt, though they claim no right to be placed on a level with England and France in relation to the practical carrying-out of those arrangements, and rallied Sir S. Northcote on his feeble protests against a new corn duty, and the satisfaction with which he nevertheless treated the rescue of county seats from the Liberals by the help of illusory promises of such a duty. Then he threw himself with all his force into the subject of Ireland, passed a great enlogium on Mr. Forater's strong and humane administration of that country, declared that the passing of the Land Act had driven the Land Leaguers to desperation, and that in that Act the Government have secured a most powerful instrument with which to crush the base conspiracy against the moral rights of landlords and tenant-farmers alike. The Act had broken the power- of the Land Leaguers, and had done what he hoped was " vital and essential to prevent the accomplishment of their mischievous design." The malignant Home-rulers tried in vain to stand up, against the Prime Minister's scornful indignation ; only Mr. Biggar, who hardly recognises real greatness when he sees it,. was obtuse enough to courrand ignore it.
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