Mr. Chamberlain began by pointing out that he last addressed
an Edinburgh audience four years and a half ago, in the very hey-day of the Union of Hearts, when it was considered by the Gladstonians shameful in the Unionists not to accept Mr. Parnell's assurances that Mr. Gladstone'a Bill would absolutely satisfy Ireland, and not be made the handle for extracting still greater concessions, with the most perfect confidence. Mr. Parnell was at that time to Gladstonians on a level with Kossuth, Garibaldi, and George Washington, if he were not even the superior of all of them. Since then, Mr. Parnell had himself assured the country that he accepted Mr. Gladstone's "trumpery Bill" only as a makeshift and a con- venient means of wresting independence ; and yet we are asked to place the same confidence in the Anti-Parnellite professions which we misplaced in the Parnellite, though the Anti-Parnellites co-operated with the Parnellites in professing a satisfaction they did not feel. We may, how- ever, remark that, just for the present, pretences appear to be thrown aside, the Anti-Parnellites vying with each other in repudiating anything short of virtual independence.
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