Mr. Gladstone made a speech on Wednesday at a dinner-
party of Sir Wilfrid Lawson's to the Northumberland and Cumberland Members. He spoke with satisfaction of the Local Government Bill, denuded though it is of many of its important provisions; repeated his congratulations to the Liberal Party on the proof furnished by the by-elections that they will triumph at the next General Election ; inveighed against the Government for not granting Mr. Parnell a Committee of Inquiry to deal with the charges brought against him in the Times, which he called " the old, the constitutional, the convenient, and the perfectly efficient" method of investigating such charges; and yet expressed his hope that the offer made by the Government, though he deemed it " absurd " and " wrong in every point of view," would not be rejected " if it is made in any manner compatible with considerations of practical justice." But Mr. Gladstone maintained that it would only be made so compatible if definite issues were to be laid before the Commission, and it were not allowed to travel into all the points raised by a speech twelve hours long. Mr. Gladstone would not say that
the definite issues should be limited to the authenticity of the letters to which Mr. Parnell asserts that his signature has been forged; but the general effect of his speech was that the issues raised should not travel very wide of that question.
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