At Lambeth on Tuesday, Sir William Harcourt made a very
lame attempt to fasten on Lord Hartington responsibility for what Lord Hartington has absolutely disavowed,—the assertion of the authenticity of the forged letters attributed by the Times to Mr. Parnell. Sir William Harcourt entirely failed. He produced statements of Lord Hartington that the Times' articles on the connection between Parnellism and crime had justified all that he himself (Lord Hartington) had said on the subject ; but Lord Hartington never said anything about the authenticity of the forged letters, and what Sir William Harcourt produced had no more bearing on that subject than on the Man with the Iron Mask. Lord Hartington was quite right in saying that Sir William Harcourt himself had said stronger things on the connection between Parnellism and crime, than Lord Hartington has ever said. Later in his speech, Sir W. Harcourt called Mr. Balfour " very slippery." " He is like an eel. If you want to get hold of him, you must have sand upon your hand." Such is the refined criticism of Sir William Harcourt.
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