The remarkable speeches of the evening, however, were the Irish
Secretary's, Sir M. Hicks-Beach, and Mr. Sullivan's. Sir M. Beach took a singularly frank and earnest tone, appealing to Ireland not to judge him untried, and promising to throw off any prejudices he might have entertained, and to administer the Irish laws for the welfare of Ireland. Mr. Sullivan's speech attracted general interest by its unexpected sobriety and by its humour. Mr. Sullivan met Mr. Chichester Fortescue in Louth with no pretence of moderation. There his language was as violent and coarse as in. the House of Commons, it was sober and dignified. Yesterday week he was very, happy in his illus- tration of the working of the Coercion laws,—for among the surpluses left by the late Administration to the present, he said, was a surplus of Coercion Bills. The possession of percussion- caps had caused one man to be sent to gaol. An old woman had been brought up in Clonmel charged with having in her possession the wreck of an old horse-pistol,—which powerful arm was con- fiscated by the magistrate, though the woman was dismissed. The private theatricals of a society of young men in Moate had been interrupted. In Belfast an Italian and his monkey had been arrested, because the monkey had " arms" in his possession, —the arm being a toy gun from which it fired peas at a mark. Mr. Sullivan's arraignments of the Irish Administration were somewhat ficrappy, but Irish genius can make a scrap-book effective, and on this occaiiion certainly did so. Mr. Butt carried 50 members with him (52 including tellers) into the lobby. Against his motion voted 314,—majority, 264.
