On Thursday, Mr. Gladstone addressed a meeting of about 210
of his supporters at the Foreign Office, to explain the posi- tion of the Government in relation to the Home-rule Bill. He referred to Lord Salisbury's speech at St. James's Hall, and Lord Hartington's at Bradford, as having cleared the air, and made it more easy for Liberal Members to see the alternatives before them. He insisted that the sole principle of the Bill is to confide home legislation and administration in Ireland to an Irish Legislature and Administration. Mr. Gladstone main- tained that in insisting on this as the principle, he was insisting on far more than Mr. Disraeli and other more easy-going states- men had been willing to treat as sufficient to justify a vote for the second reading of any measure. It would be monstrous to insist that those who voted for the second reading of the Home- rule Bill should hold themselves pledged to support also the Land-purchase Bill. Mr. Gladstone accepted Mr. Bryce's view of the absolute legal supremacy of the Imperial Parliament over the Irish or any other subordinate Legislature, but he held that the Imperial Parliament would, if it passed his Bill, be bound in honour not to poach on the defined sphere of the Irish Legis- lature.
