Mr. Gladstone made three great speeches at Oldham on Wed-
nesday, on the most important points of which we have com- mented elsewhere. In addition to what we have there said, we may remark that with relation to Ireland he condemned strongly at Oldham the policy of " getting upon our high horse, and refusing to entertain, any questions of relief till what is called Fenianism is extinguished. No ; when you attack social evils, don't attack them in their manifestations, but in their roots and causes." He spoke with the utmost severity, of course, of the guilty " mis- creants," who have made war on society at Clerkenwell and else- where; but insisted that we should not, in sheer heat of blood, " mistake the enormity of the crime for clearness of evidence " against anybody accused of it,—a caution of which we may yet come to stand in need.
