To the question : Has the Irish policy of the
Government been a success P—Mr. Balfour gave no uncertain answer. " Every expectation which in my most sanguine moments I ever ventured to frame with regard to the results, the happy results, that might follow from a firm administration of the law in Ireland, and from the course of remedial legislation which we have begun, though we have not finished,—every such ex- pectation, I say, has been fulfilled, and more than fulfilled." After alluding to the ease of a man named Kelly, an Irish agitator who during Mr. Gladstone's Government was int. prisoned for six months without trial, and who has again been put in prison, but this time "not without trial," and after showing the absurdity of alleging that the Government have furbished up an obsolete law in binding persons over to keep the peace under the statute of Edward Ill., since it has been a constant practice to do so both in Ireland and England, and was employed in numerous instances wider Mr. Gladstone's Ministry, Mr. Balfour drew a masterly picture of the present condition of the Home-rule Party :—" The Liberal Party re- mind me of one of those motley hordes of conquering bar- barians, drawn from many tribes, professing many religions, having in view many objects, but principally plunder, who join together under the standard of one noted leader in the hope that, when he has led them to victory, they will be able to turn the victory not to his account, but to their own." The whole address showed Mr. Balfour's power as a popular speaker. He has realised that it is not necessary to speak down to an audience because it is dressed in fustian,—a fact which many of the Gladstonian leaders are very slow to learn.
