'Lord Northbrook's evening speech was a defence of the policy
of the Government, especially in relation to Ireland. He showed the great diminution of agrarian crime, especially of crimes of violence to the person,—which had been reduced by considerably more than one-half comparing the quarter ending September 30th, 1881, and the same quarter in the present year ; and he insisted that this improvement, which had begun and gone steadily on, long before the Prevention of Crime Act had passed into law, is not mainly due to that Act, but rather to the Land Act and the supplementary measures. Referring to Egypt, and passing an animated eulogium on the performances of our Navy and Army there, Lord Northbrook mentioned that Sir Garnet Wolseley, before going to Egypt, specified the very day and very place for his great military blow,—and actually fought the battle of Tel-el-Kebir on the day mentioned. (We rather think, by the way, that Sir Garnet anticipated his own prediction by two days, having named in England September 15th, and actually struck his blow on the 13th.) Lord Northbrook also did justice to the great ability with which Admiral Hoskins secured the Suez Canal, and to the promptitude with which Captain Molyneux supplied Alexandria, when its water failed, with 70,000 gallons of fresh water every day from the four condensers by which he distilled fresh water from sea-water. There have been much greater military campaigns than the Egyptian, but hardly any so remarkable for feats of scientific prevision and precision,
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