On Monday, Mr. W. H. Smith,—the Conservative First Lord of
the Admiralty,—made a curious speech on Ireland, in which he said that what the present Government had done during the last twenty years had gravely injured the character of the Irish people ; that for all that, he would not repeal any Act that had been passed or pass any fresh Act, because Ireland wanted rest from legislation ; but that he was most anxious as soon as possible to assist the purchase by the peasantry of their properties, since at present there was no one whose interest it could be to invest capital in the soiL He did not explain why —with security of tenure—it is not as much the peasants' pre- sent interest to invest capital in the soil, as it would be after they had purchased their farms. And still less did he explain how, after using up all their spare money for the purchase of their farms, they would have more of it left to invest in the improvement of the land, than they have now. Mr. Smith is an excellent man, but much too practical to feel disturbed at uttering the most glaring self-contradictions.
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