Lord Spencer's speech on Thursday at the Liberal Conference at
Leicester was, like all the speeches on this subject sleliverel
recently, an uninteresting one. He dilated for some time on other questions on which all Liberals are agreed, and on which, again, there are now no differences of any serious character between Liberals and Conservatives ; and when at last he came to the subject of Ireland, he had nothing really fresh to say. He deplored, of course, Sir Robert Hamilton's removal from Dublin. He declared Mr. Gladstone'e Irish policy "both neces- sary and right," and then he proceeded to prove this by saying that as we had been trying every other remedy but Home-rule, and had failed, we ought now to try Home-rule; which is like saying that because you have tried every remedy for inflamma- tion of the lungs but bleeding, and have failed, you ought now to try bleeding. The reply is,—` Certainly not, if the physician, from his experience, is as sure as he can be that bleeding will make the patient worse.' In our opinion, Home-rule is the so- called " remedy " which is most certain to make the patient worse. Lord Spencer, as we read his speech, adheres as strongly as ever to the necessity of settling the land question before giving Home-rule.
