The banquet given to Mr. Goschen at the Criterion yesterday
week elicited a very telling speech from Lord Salisbury, and from the guest of the evening. Lord Salisbury said that he did not wish to pose as a martyr of political self-deniaL Lord Harlington had talked of the mutual sacrifices made by the Tories and Liberal Unionists in order to secure this Govern- ment ; but, for his own part, heartily as he could co-operate with Mr. Goschen, he was not conscious of having bad to make any sacrifice in order to achieve that co-operation, and if Mr. Goschen had had to make any gigantic sacrifice on his own part, he had concealed it very well. Remarking on Lord Rosebery's desire for what be called conciliation to Ireland, Lord Salis- bury said that the question was,—Who was to be conciliated P A boa-constrictor fed with a live rabbit was doubtless con- ciliated by the rabbit ; but was the rabbit conciliated by being given to the boa-constrictor ? If the National League was to be conciliated, no doubt its victims most be sacri- ficed. But that would not be conciliation to all Irishmen, but only to those who have already riveted their yoke on so large a part of the country. Mr. Goschen in his speech reviewed the alliance, now a year old, between the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists, and pointed out that, just in proportion as the illegal and immoral doctrines of the Parnellites, with their " Plan of Campaign,"—condemned by the Irish Courts of Law, but apologised for in the House of Commons,—had grown in favour with the Gladstonian Liberals, in the same proportion had the tie between the Liberal Unionists and the Conservatives grown stricter and more cordial. In fact, it is more and more a contest between a confederation of revolutionary parties and a phalanx of constitutional politicians.
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