The Duke was, as usual, singularly fair towards opponents. Be
thought it, for instance, perfectly natural that a people immersed in their own business, and accustomed to confide in Mr. Gladstone, should, in the midst of the wide division of opinion, give him another chance of carrying out his plan. He did not say that the Irish Parliament would defy English opinion, or break needlessly through restrictions ; he only said that, if pressed by opinion at home, or instigations from Irishmen abroad, it could disregard them if it would, and there would be no remedy but military force. He thought it no disgrace for Mr. Gladstone to fail; for under the conditions laid down for him, success was an impossibility, if only from the "absurd confusion which would be introduced into Par- liamentary government by the existence of two separate majorities upon two separate subjects in the House of Com- mons." We cannot, of course, give even an idea of the whole speech ; but the Unionists will be wise if they circulate a million copies in readable type before the second reading.
Previous page
