Mr. Balfour on Monday carried the second reading of his
Bill for creating an Under-Secretaryship for his own Depart- ment, by 226 to 177. The Parnellites furiously oppose this proposal,—first, because they hate Colonel King-Harman, who is to be Under-Secretary; and secondly, because they wish to bait successive Chief Secretaries for Ireland till they give up their offices; and Mr. Morley made himself their mouthpiece, and accused the mover of " equivocal and pitiful manoeuvres." He maintained that the Irish way of questioning the Secre- taries was their only plan for controlling Irish administration, and that answering questions about workhouses and the like compelled the Secretaries to study important details. Sir J. Simon, who followed, roundly accused Mr. Balfour of com- mitting a. "fraud " upon the House, alleging that he had pro- mised not to pay his Under-Secretary, and now brought in a Bill to pay him. Mr. Balfour, in reply, showed that it was impossible for him to select a popular Member as Under- Secretary, and regretted that Mr. Morley had falsified his hopes of fair and honourable treatment, " hopes now for ever dispelled." He had not the advantage, as former Secretaries bad, of a chief who could take the heaviest Parliamentary work off his shoulders, and he absolutely needed more assist- ance. As to Colonel King-Harman, his solitary fault was that twenty years ago he had been a Home-ruler ; but surely it was not for his opponents to consider a change of opinion on the subject of Home-rule an unforgivable crime.
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