Mr. Gladstone's speech was a careful comparison of his review
of events on Lord Mayor's Day, 1880, and his review of them on Lord Mayor's Day, 1881, with the circumstances of the pre- sent time ; and he showed, we think, that both as regards Ireland. and as regards our foreign affairs, the prospect had brightened steadily during the last year, and was now far from a gloomy one. Of the Irish Land-leaguers, he said,—" I should not be fair and equitable, if I did not record my conviction that some of those who had been betrayed or seduced into doctrines of illegality have since come to a better mind, and have arrived at the conviction that they have not to look on this coun- try as otherwise than a friendly and sisterly nation, and have come to the belief that in the observance of the law, and in every just and legitimate endeavour to amend the law, is to be found the best specific for whatever may yet be required, in order to supply the wants and mitigate the remaining difficulties and sorrows of Ireland." If that is pointed at Mr. Parnell, we should be disposed to call it a little optimist ; but the inner mind of Mr. Parnell is still an enigma in this country.
