The third reading of the Peace Preservation Ireland Bill was
taken on Friday week, Mr. Parnell making a final protest against it, and Lord Randolph Churchill delivering what he- termed his final kick. He complimented Mr. Forster on his ability in playing the part of "heavy father," "with a rod in his hand and a tear in his eyes," and restraining severely, though over longing to give vent to, his tender emo- tions. He complimeuted Sir William Harcourt on the skill displayed in his less attractive part of the heartless gay Lothario, repudiating as criminal " the young Irish affec- tions in the recent wooing of which some of his colleagues had contrived to lose their characters." He was eloquently inaccu- rate on Coercion. "They had now trains arriving in Dublin from north, south, and west, loaded with mauvais sujets." Lord Randolph's imagination must multiply by a very large multiplier, as all the arrested could be comfortably seated in five first-class compartments. The mere promise of a Land Bill, Lord Randolph went on, which was still coming, like Christmas, and was spoken of by Mr. Herbert Gladstone at Ealing as a most difficult undertaking, made up "the harvest which Ireland bad reaped from the most enlightened and God- granted Government the country had ever seen."
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