For the rest, Lord Hartington thought that the administra- tive
work of the present Government had been so good that it much more than counterbalanced the failure of its legislative measures, and he denied that the failure of either of the two principal measures withdrawn, the Irish Land-Purchase Bill and the Tithe Bill, had been due to any defects in the measures themselves, or any failure of the Government to work out adequately the right intention. He held that both measures had been good, and had been defeated by the per- tinacious absorption of the time of the House in irrelevant matters. On the Irish policy of the Government he passed a high encomium, and held that the Unionist Party would show themselves able to do as much for the amelioration of Ireland by positive measures as it had already done by firmly repressing and punishing illegal and criminal agitations. Sir Henry James, who spoke after Lord Hartington, predicted with some confidence that if Mr. Gladstone won the General Election, and had to construct a new Home-rule Bill for Ireland, it would be the signal for a new and remarkable increase in the number of the Liberal Unionist Party, who would be recruited from all those who could see the great danger of every one of the many specifics by which it is proposed to reconcile Irish Home-rule with the safety and unity of the United Kingdom.
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