Mr. Trevelyan made a fine speech at Hawick on Friday
week, in the first portion of Which he examined at length the position of Ireland in the present crisis. The Tories, he said, rightly or wrongly, expected Mr. Parnell to win twenty or thirty seats on a Dissolution, and to return to Parliament with seventy fol- lowers. Nevertheless, Lord Salisbury urged a Dissolution on the existing franchise, hoping for an addition to his strength of some twenty Members within Great Britain. If he obtained them, the next House of Commons would con- tain 310 Liberals, 270 Conservatives, and 70 Nationalists, and Mr. Parnell would hold the balance of power. Mr. Parnell would, of course, be prepared to turn out Mr. - Gladstone, but only at a price, and the price must be either some long step in the direction of independence, or the non- renewal of the Crimes Prevention Act. Were the Tories pre- pared to grant either ; and yet, if they did not, how were they to retain Mr. Parnell's adhesion for a day ? It might, he thought, turn out to be one of the most unfortunate events in the history of England that just at this precise time a bitter struggle should have commenced between the two parties ; because, for- sooth, Lord Salisbury says he will not trust the Government with the management of Redistribution.
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