There have been virtually three replies given to this re-
markable speech,—one by Mr. Fowler on Friday week, one by Sir William Harcourt on Monday, and one by Mr. Gladstone, born out of due season, on Tuesday. Mr. Fowler practically admitted that the half-million surplus is a temporary gift to Ireland, in order to secure for her Legislature a fair start; but he maintained that the cost of collecting her revenue is not £200,000, but only £120,000. Sir William Harcourt's reply on Monday amounted to this,—that judged by'the average of the last three years, Ireland will pay -under this scheme just what she has been paying in those three years (which have, however, been years in which we have spent a great deal in relieving Irish distress and improving her resources). In short, while he reproached the Unionists with wishing to treat Ireland as a man he once knew treated his wife,—namely, beating her, and then making up for the beating by giving her diamonds as a solatium,—what he himself proposes is to con- tinue the presents of diamonds, but to vary the more painful incident by empowering Ireland to boat us, instead of con- tinuing to beat her.
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