Mr. Herbert Gladstone on Saturday made a speech at Peebles,
in which he stated that the condition of Ireland was improving. There were but 65 agrarian offences in October, 1882, against 21.6 in October, 1881; 90,622 applications had been made under the Arrears Act ; landlords were "accepting the situation," rents were being paid, and juries were beginning once more to convict. All this showed a great improvement, but, nevertheless, though there should be no more agrarian legislation on a large scale for the present, the administra- tion of Ireland ought, by-and-bye, to be radically reformed. It was the most centralised Government in Europe, and one of the worst. Everybody looked to _the Castle for everything, even for public works if there were a famine, and the Irish people obtained no political education. That is perfectly true, with this strange addition, that all the people who apply to the Castle, from the Magistrates to the mob, hate the Castle with all their hearts. Centralisation exists in many countries, in France, for instance, but usually the masses think the officials their best protectors. In Ireland, they run to the officials like children to their mothers, and then shoot them for the crime of being in office.
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