Mr. Phinket, on Monday, directed much of his criticism, which
was close and detailed, to the cases dealt with by the Sub-Commissioners under the Land Act. Mr. Chamberlain, in replying to Mr. Gibson, pointed out that after the prosecution of the Land League had failed, it was hardly possible for the Government to assume, without further and clearer proof of its illegal tendency, that the association was illegal, and ought to have been proclaimed illegal; and that, in point of fact, the Government did proclaim it illegal, as soon as it declared a plainly illegal policy. Mr. Blennerhasset made an able and moderate speech for the Irish policy of the Government. Lord George Hamilton promised to pardon and support Mr. Gladstone, on condition that he denounced Mr. Chamberlain and his much attacked Liverpool speech ; and Mr. Lefevre made a striking speech to show how far rack-renting had gone in Ireland, and how frequently the rents had been reduced on the evidence of valuations submitted by the landlords themselves. He concluded by suggesting that if a "pictorial average" of Tory opinion on the Land Act could be produced, on Mr. Galton's method, by superimposing the views of Lord Randolph Churchill on those of Sir Stafford Northcote, Mr. James Lowther, Sir George Eliot, and the Tory candidate for Londonderry, they would obtain a "blurred image," from which it would be impossible to elicit a policy at all.
