The remarkable power of debate displayed by Lord Hatherley throughout
the Irish discussion has amply justified Mr. Gladstohe's choice, but his speech on Tuesday was a triumph. It was addressed entirely to the speeches he had just heard, and the rebukes it con- tained to Lord Salisbury and Earl Grey were of the most telling kind. Lord Salisbury had condescended to a joke about the dis- posal of the surplus as distributed between landlords and lunatics scarcely worthy of a comic paper, and Lord Hatherley met him. with a crushing Shakespearian quotation :— . . . .
"'A man replete with words,
Full of comparisons and wounding flouts, Which he on all estates would execute
.) That lay within the mercy of his wit.'
—to wean himself of this propensity Lord Salisbury must visit an- hospital, forrn 'That's the way to choke a gibing spirit.'"
Lord Grey had said the llinisterialists were not honest in their advocacy of the preamble, and was told by the Chancellor he "did not allow the iioble Earl to be the arbiter of his honour." The objection, that relief to the county cess in Ireland is relief to • landlords, was also disposed of in a sentence. There are 334,000' persons rated under /4 who pay the ems.
