The Gladstonians and Parnellites are displaying their just exultation in
a very indecent and, we fancy, impolitic way. Not only are they accusing the Times, which has, it is clear, acted with foolishness and precipitation, of all manner of con- spiracies, but they allege, in Parliament and out of it, that the Government and the Times conspired in a great fraud. Mr. Healy said that, in substance, in the House on Tuesday, and Sir W. Harcourt said it plainly at Derby on Wednesday. The Liberal country papers are, moreover, repeating the same charge in every variety of form except one,—a distinct allega- tion that such-and-such a Minister did so-and-so. If these imputations are guess-work, they are atrocious ; and if they are true, they should be brought forward at once, with sufficient proof, in Parliament. If substantiated, they would overthrow any Government that ever existed ; but while unsubstantiated, they only bind the Conservatives and Unionists together in resistance to unwarrantable calumnies. It is part of the same plan to represent Sir Richard Webster as the Government agent in the matter, though his predecessors have for centuries accepted private business. The excitement will cool down ; but not, perhaps: till the Opposition has thrown away its advantage by some furious rush at a mare's-nest.
