Mr. Hardy wound up the night's debate in a temperate
but thoroughly Conservative speech, full of points, which told in the House, but do not tell outside it. He declared tenant right, like Mr. Goldwin Smith, to be "either illusion or confiscation;" defended the Catholic University on the ground that education in Ireland, since the admission of priests' schools and convents into the system, had become denominational ; declared that for his party to consent to the disendowinent of the Established Church would be "an act of political baseness and cowardice without a parallel ;" and, in fact, announced clearly that the policy of Government as regarded Ireland, was to do nothing beyond giving tenants some claim to unexhausted improvements. His own creed on the subject was summed up in a single query. "I want to know why there should be one rule for England and another totally different rule for Ireland ?" a question exactly as sensible as asking why, when apples will grow in England, they should not be cultivated in Bengal, and really wants only the feminine reply, "Because there should."
Previous page
