On Monday Mr. MacEwan, the Member for the Central Division
of Edinburgh, delivered a most remarkable speech, in which he declared that the Irish Home-rule Bill of 1893 is " dead ; " that no such Bill can be carried in "this genera- tion;" that the Irish ought to be frankly told that the attempt has failed, and must be abandoned, although in deference to the wishes of the Irish Nationalists it was earnestly attempted ; and that what remains possible, is to extend to Ireland such local freedom as has been granted to England and Scotland, as well as to treat her representatives with perfectly equal respect in the Imperial Parliament, He advocated, however, some sort of compromise which would put an end to "the rule of Dublin Castle," and leave to local Irish opinion all that is now left to local Scotch opinion, with all the array of County Councils, District Councils, and Parish Councils to popularise the Irish Ad- ministration. And he held that a considerable proportion of the Gladstonian party had recognised frankly the hopeless- ness of forcing on this country such a measure as the Irish Home-rule Bill of last year, and had voted for it simply as a mode of keeping their engagements with the Irish Members. He strongly condemned the particular mode in which the Closure had been used by the Government in the discussion of that measure. Every separate clause should have been discussed in the House of Commons, though all excessive discussion should have been promptly closured.
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