Under the heading, "What is a Breach of Privilege P
" a writer in Monday's Times draws attention to a passage in Mr. T. P. O'Connor's account of Mr. Chamberlain's speech, pub- lished in the Weekly Sun of Sunday last. The passage begins by admitting the moderation of the speech in appearance, and contrasts it with "the sheer abandonment of low vituperation in which he wallowed at Walsall." "At times," however, he proceeds, "and in spite of all his efforts at self-control, the hideous and evil passion of his heart broke forth, and there was a hoarse and raucous sound of hate that almost made one's blood freeze." "He stood there," continues Mr. T. P. O'Connor, "with his pale face, his lack-lustre but vicious eye, his voice with cold hatred and fell purpose in every accent, and then, as one thought of the hellish passions he was trying to bring into open flame, it became one of the most awful pictures of a lost soul I have ever seen." Yet, as is well • known, Mr. Chamberlain's speech was in reality so moderate and so conciliatory in tone, that many Unionists doubted whether the opposition it offered to the Bill was strenuous enough. If Irishmen go blind with the blood-fury in their eyes at such a speech, and when every motive of expediency and prudence urges them to moderation, what will they do in an Irish House, and in the intoxicating air of Dublin ? It will be an "infamy of hell," or "the blasphemy of a lost soul," for a Loyalist to ask a question about a water-rate.
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