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In relation to Ireland, Mr. Lefevre did not think that

there would be any British party in the House of Commons willing to leave Ireland to herself. Her relative importance in the Empire, as measured by population, has steadily diminiahed since the famine ; and the Union could easily be preserved by force, if it were ever threatened by force. However, Mr. Lefevre ridiculed the notion that it would ever be seriously threat- ened by force ; and he held that the assimilation of the Irish and English franchise would introduce into Ireland a new element,—the vote of the agricultural labourers, which would very likely not be Parnellite in its aims. But whatever the result, we could not refuse to Ireland a franchise which- is a gauge of true equality in the Union.

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