The Report stage of the Trade Disputes Bill, which was
taken in the House of Commons on Thursday, gave rise to some not very edifying explanations of their change of attitude in regard to Clause IV. by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Haldane, and the Attorney-General. The Attorney- General's Speech, indeed, went perilously near to adopting the Well-known formula of the American politician : "These were my sentiments, gentlemen, but as they didn't suit they have been changed." Mr. Butcher, in supporting an amendment that the Bill should not extend to Ireland, on the ground that it Would facilitate every form of boycotting and intimidation, caused a lively scene. Speaking of the tyranny of the Land League, he referred most properly and most truly to the days when under that tyranny the living were refused the necessaries of life, and the dead denied their coffins. The Nationalist Members, with a hardihood and a reliance upon the forgetful- ness of the British public which can only be described as magnificent, met Mr. Butcher's speech with cries of "It is a slander!" "It is a lie !" and Mr. Redmond attacked Mr. Butcher for having Maligned his own countrymen, and having repeated absurd calumnies.
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