The Gladstonian side was put with great oratorical ability by
the Lord Chancellor ; but he, like the rest of his colleagues, defended the principle of Home-rule rather than the Bill before the House. Lord Herschel' did not, he said, feel sure that if Mr. Pitt had been alive, he would still have been in favour of the Act of Union. When the Union was passed, the Irish were a third of the population of the United Kingdom ; now they were only one-eighth, and therefore the political necessity for Union was much less. Lord Herschell laboured the old argu- ment that, because we gave the Irish the franchise, we ought to cease governing the people of Ireland by coercion. Surely that is a most intolerable non sequitur. Suppose the agricul- tural labourers of East Anglia demanded Protection, would Lord Herschell say, "Lowering the franchise makes it impos- sible to force Free-trade any longer on Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex "F Lord Herschel' suggested, like Lord Rosebery, that the House of Lords should pass the second reading, amend the Bill in every clause, and so force the House of Com- mons to discuss it. Lord Herschell ended his speech by a prophecy that the Lords would be beaten now as they had always been beaten before. We shall see.
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