Lord Hartington made a speech at Norwich on the same
day, which was as marked a contrast to Sir Wam Harcourt's as a speech of the elder Pitt's might have been to a speech of Mr. Wilkes's. He firmly refused to touch the sensation of the day while the Commission was still sitting, and while so many matters connected with the event of the day had not been fully cleared up. The true issue in Ireland, though of course closely connected with those raised before the Commission, was quite separable from it. Lord Hartington especially contended that the offences for which Irish Members have been sent to prison cannot properly be called political, when they are really incite- ments to intimidation and social tyranny. "This system has no counterpart in other parts of the United Kingdom, though exclusive dealing is practised by other political organisations.
I defy any of our opponents to point to a single case out of Ireland where a deliberately organised attempt has been made to render the lives of political or social opponents intolerable to them. Nor can they point out a case where communication with their neighbours has been forbidden, where men have been prohibited from supplying them with the necessaries of life and the means of pursuing their lawful industry." Mr. Morley, said Lord Hartington, advises a policy of conciliation ; but how is a policy of conciliation possible " at the expense of inoffending and innocent victims"? The only way to conciliate would be to let the Irish Judges be elected, and also instructed "to protect the strong, the violent, and the powerful, and to abandon to the mercy of their opponents those who are weak and unprotected,"—the very policy which would conciliate Mr. O'Brien, and of which Sir William Harcourt is now roaring out his approval like a bull of Bashan.
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