The Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered a short and very
effective reply. He quoted Mr. Asquith's Leeds speech in January, 1890, to show that, on Mr. Asquith's own showing, the country, kept in complete ignorance of the kind of Home- rule which Mr. Gladstone proposes to give, could not in any way be asserted to have declared in the General Election for the scheme on which he may ultimately fix. The electors have voted, as Mr. Asquith had foreseen that they might vote, for Home-rule in the abstract, but not for any particular scheme, so that even Mr. Asquith himself can hardly be regarded as pledged to support the policy to be revealed six months hence. Mr. G-oschen pointed out that the Irish Members owe the Unionists some gratitude. They owe their seats in the Westminster Parliament to the Unionists, without whose efforts the benches below the gangway would no longer be adorned by their presence.
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