Mr. Goschen's powerful speech began by a comment on Mn
Gladstone's admission that "the regular Opposition" were now fighting in alliance with the National League, or at least with the party which directs the National League. And he asked, if the present diminution in the number of outrages is due to the affiance between Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Parnell, on what they were to depend for a continuance of that diminu- tion in case of Mr. Gladstone's accession to office, and of his failure to satisfy Mr. Parnell. He declared that this measure was, in the intention of the Government, absolutely essential to. the effective operation of any remedial measure, for which no. success could be obtained, without breaking down the terrorism which now controls the liberty of Irish farmers and Irish. labourers. He gave instances of this amid the most violent interruption from the Parnellites, whom nevertheless he forced, to hear him, and he proved that this tyranny causes farms in various places to lie waste which ought to be in full cultivation and ministering to the prosperity of the Irish people. He showed that the secrecy of the jury system is violated, that the names of jurors favouring a particular verdict are published, and he contended that the Government owed a great duty to these jurors to relieve them of their most dangerous tasks, and to protect them when they could not be wholly relieved. He dwelt on the total failure to get evidence in consequence of the terror felt by the sufferers from crime, lest the League should inflict on them worse sufferings; and he pressed on the House in eloquent terms the humiliation of Mr. Gladstone's position when he had to admit that the Government of which Mr. Glad- stone and his colleagues were the ornaments should have had to retreat in so many parts of Ireland, at the command and before the tribunals of the honourable Member for Cork.
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