Mr. Balfour's exposure of the monstrous legends which are disseminated
as facts by the Parnellites, and by some of their allies on Parnellite authority, was very vigorous. He showed that even Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, whom he would as soon suspect of " fabricating a fact as of writing a sonnet," had been taken in by them. He showed that Sir G. Trevelyan, who had accused him of evicting Irish farmers "in crowds," had evicted in one quarter 853, where the present Government had evicted in the corresponding quarter exactly 132. Again, the same gentleman, in his anxiety to demonstrate the improvement in the Irish Press, had quoted from United Ireland a strong denunciation of a criTtle of which that journal had expressly suggested that the police were the originators, and had omitted in his quotation the sentence which showed the denunciation to be a blow at the police. Mr. Balfour also exposed the monstrous misstatements of Mr. Dillon on the subject of two Irish convictions, in both of which Mr. Dillon made it appear that no violence was used by the mob to the police, though in both cases the police were resisted with much violence, and in one of them were severely injured ; and in one of which, again, Mr. Dillon invented a victim,—an old woman of eighty who was not there,—and also a penalty of a year's bard labour with the offscouring of the prison, for a girl of fourteen,—who was really only asked to find security for good behaviour (which she refined), and in default, condemned to go to prison for a week. Such were the legends, freely circu- lated by the score, to persuade the people of Great Britain that Mr. Balfour's government of Ireland is savagely oppressive,— which it certainly is not. It is, we believe, a great deal milder than Sir G. Trevelyan's.
