Mr. Chamberlain related a story of an Irishman who was
found standing before a mirror with his eyes shut, and when asked what he was doing, said that he wanted to know how he looked when he was asleep. He thought that that was the attitude in which some Gladstonians approached the consideration of the Irish Question and Mr. Gladstone's policy. In other words, we suppose, they shut their eyes to the facts, and yet imagine that they are studying that to which they turn their fast-shut eyes. The result of returning Mr. Gladstone to power, would be that Ireland would be thrown back to the condition of 1885 ; that foreign policy would be placed in the hands of those who are always eager to find the enemies of this country in the right, and its friends in the wrong; and that every practicable reform would be postponed for some five or six years at least. The whole speech was masterly.
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