It is satisfactory to learn that the assurances recently given
by Lord Crewe in the House of Lords with regard to Irish Magistrates who betrayed their trust are being made good by the Government. Mr. P. J. Kelly, a Nationalist Magistrate who site on the Bench an officio as Chairman of a District Council, was reported to have recently urged a Galway audience to treat Lord Ashtown as John Blake was treated in 1883. As Mr. John Blake was shot dead in that year, the Govern- ment have very properly decided to prosecute Mr. Kelly for using language inciting to murder. In view of these facts, and in view of his further alleged vindication of the right of " cattle-driving " from the Bench, it is somewhat strange that the Chief Secretary has declined to suspend Mr. Kelly pending the prosecution. But this is only of a piece with Mr. Birrell's refusal to accord police protection to grazing farmers on the ground that they "must take steps to protect their own property," though the police themselves have proved that in the case of these cattle-drives the farmers have to face odds of a hundred to one. The condition of Ireland is growing serious; and unless the Government show themselves more conscious of their responsibilities than they have up till now, they will find themselves involved in great difficulties. No British Government which tolerates. disorder in Ireland ever prospers.
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