The debate was continued on Tuesday, the evening being remarkable
chiefly for the speech of a very young Member, Sir E. Grey, who for this occasion deserted the Glad- stonians,• and whose incisive reasoning in favour of the Bill created a deep impresssion in the House ; for a speech by Mr. Dillon, in which he intimated that if his objections were disregarded, a Nationalist Party might arise based on the repudiation of instalments ; and for a grave speech by Lord Hartington, nailing Mr. Dillon to admissions which, in his judgment, showed that the Parnellites had combined to lower the rent of land. On the division, the first reading was carried by 330 to 246. Public interest accordingly died away, and although on Thursday the debate on the second reading was started by Mr. Parnell in a poor speech approving the principle of the Bill, but denying that it was fairly carried out, and continued by eminent speakers like Lord Randolph Churchill and Sir W. Harcourt, the division-list showed only a majority of 299 to 224. The Bill, however, is safe, for the opposition to it has never been anything more than an excuse for impeding the Government, and for making speeches be- wailing the wrongs of the Irish tenantry, who are now, of all tenants in the world, best protected by laws which the interpreting Courts almost strain in their favour.
