In the House of Commons on Monday night Mr. O'Brien
gave a detailed description of his negotiations with Mr. Lloyd George. He declared that at one of the interviews "he had read the letter to him precisely as be had read it at Cork." It was in reality Mr. Redmond who had been guilty of a breach of confidence ; but "the master of seventy votes was also the master of the Liberals." Mr. Lloyd George replied in detail to Mr. O'Brien's charges, saying that he had no recollection of the letter being read to him. He dwelt chiefly, however, upon the importance to a Minister of private interviews with members of all parties, and upon the importance of these interviews remaining confidential. "I have met gentlemen who were not Members of this House at those private inter- views,—hotel-keepers, tobacconists, cabdrivers, publicans; but I have never been given away except on this occasion." We cannot compliment the Chancellor of the Exchequer on a very happy use of language. " Given away " suggests, we should have thought, transactions of a nature which he and his colleagues are at pains to deny have ever taken place.
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