It is matter for regret that Lord Hartington does not
yet see his way to carrying on the Government of Ireland without what, according to a rather vile Parliamentary euphuism, is called a 4' Peace Preservation Act,"—much on the principle that the instru- ment composed of lead and whalebone, constructed for promptly fracturing the skull, is called a " life-preserver." We cannot see that the Chief Secretary made out his case for the renewal of the Act on Thursday. In Westmeath, for whose benefit the Act was especially passed in 1871, the number of agrarian offences has fallen from 103 to 25, and these chiefly belong to the category of writing threatening letters. In Meath, there was only 1 agrarian offence last year. In King's County, the number had fallen to 15. Yet the whole of Ireland, with the exception of one county in Ulster, and parts of two others, is kept under the operation of a law which allows the Executive to arrest and detain without trial for an indefinite period any Irishman, to suppress any Irish newspaper, to imprison any person (say, a wandering poet, commercial traveller, or Cook's tourist) found nt large between sunrise and sunset who is unable to satisfy the Irish Constabulary of his intentions and identity, and which denies the right of carrying arms without licence. " As if," said Mr. Ronayne, " any one imagined that a man would take out a licence for shooting his landlord." We wish we could see a little more of the policy of confidence in the government of Ireland.
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