A great Gladstonian demonstration was held at the Corn Exchange,
Edinburgh, on Tuesday, to hear an address of Lord Rosebery's ; but the most important feature of it was probably the letter from Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Gray, which was read before Lord Rosebery spoke. In it Mr. Gladstone says that the Irish Members of Parliament are in gaol " because the Tories and Dissentient Liberals have thought fit, under pretence of legislating against crimes, to pass a law which has practically no concern with any crimes except those which the Act itself creates in making Irishmen liable to the gaol for acts of exclusive dealing, or for encouraging the same in others, which exclusive dealing is practised at will by the Tories of England. That is crime in Ireland which is no crime in England, so that in the trial of Mr. O'Brien, as even Mr. Balfour has not dared to deny, the prosecuting counsel of the Crown made it part of his charge that Mr. O'Brien had threatened that he would do in Ireland what the Primrose Dames do in England." Mr. Balfour, however, does explicitly deny this in his letter to Thursday's Times, and, in fact, it is quite a mistake. Inciting to breach of contract and the deliberate withholding of just debts is not usually the practice of Primrose Dames.
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