Mr. Balfour made a speech of great power to his
constituents in the Free-Trade Hall, Manchester, on Wednesday evening. He began with quoting his address to the electors, to prove, in answer to Sir George Trevelyan, that he had not acquiesced in false representations to secure the Irish vote. He had openly declared that he would -resist " every attempt to loosen the con- nection" between Great Britain and Ireland, under whatever disguise that attempt might be made ; and he had insisted that "to secure order, freedom, and safety for the minority as well as the majority in Ireland," was the great object to be aimed at. Sir G. Trevelyan, he said, was very like Mr. Pliable in "The Pilgrim's Progress," who, " after falling into the Slough of Despond, promptly began to use very violent language towards his former companion, and after struggling abont in the mud for some time, got out on the wrong side, and ultimately returned to the City of Destruction," where "he was held greatly in derision amongst all sorts of people." Mr. Balfour excused, what in our opinion was inexcusable, the Conservative alliance with the Parnellites in 1885, on the ground that in 1885 "the Irish came to us," while in 1887 " the Radicals have gone to the Irish." Was Lord Randolph Churchill's attack on Lord Spencer, and his readiness to revise the Mae mtrasna sentences, an operation that can be properly described as receiving spon- taneous Parnellite support ? Was it not rather a deliberate and most discreditable bid for that support?
