Mr. Cavendish Bentincls, speaking on Monday, at White- haven, revealed
to his admiring audience that it was he himself who had suggested to Sir Stafford Northcote that witty application of the phrase used by one of the Witches in Macbeth,—" A deed without a name,"—to the so-called "Kil- rnainharn. Treaty." Referring to the Irish policy of the Government, he said of the Kilmainham Treaty that its character might best be expressed by a quotation from Macbeth :— " Macbeth : You secret, black, and midnight hags, What is't you do ?
All: A deed without a name."
"The Kilmainham Treaty was a deed without a name." It appears to us that "the Kilmainham Treaty" is, on the contrary, a deed with a name, and a very inappropriate one, as the whole subsequent history of the transaction proves, for Mr. Parnell and his colleagues, so far from having concluded a treaty with the Government, have done all in their power to harass and thwart them. However, the point of Mr. Cavendish Bentinek's wit was, no doubt, the chance he got of describing the Govern- anent as "You secret, black, and. midnight bags," a point which he forgot to impress on Sir Stafford Northcote, who, in his speech at Charlton Park to the Greenwich Conservatives, gave us the clumsy shaft without the poisoned tip to it which,
in Mr. Cavendish Bentinck's eyes, makes it effective. Whether being described as "secret, black, and midnight hags" by Mr. Cavendish Bentinck is really as unpleasant as he thinks, may be a matter of question. All these matters of opinion are relative to the point of view of the speaker. Certainly, no Liberal would like to be described as an angel of light by Mr. Cavendish l3entinck.
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