The Paris correspondent of the Times describes, in the im-
pression of this day week, a conversation between Mr. Gladstone and M. Daryl (the English correspondent of the Paris Temps) on the subject of the recent reduction of Irish rents by the Land Commissioners,—a conversation which has, we conclude, appeared in the Temps, though the Times' correspondent does not say so ; indeed, he passes from an interview with Mr. Gladstone reported in Le Soleil, to this interview, without saying where the second conversation was originally published. The question of origin is important only on account of the extraordinary character of the remarks attributed to Mr. Gladstone, of which the following are specimens :—" Is it not incredible ? 14 per cent, reduction on rents decreed by a stroke of the pen of the Government." a Suddenly, without a warning, without even consulting Parlia- ment, by a simple administrative measure to deprive the Irish landlords of 14 per cent, of their incomes !" "The more I think of it, the more amazed I am at the decision to which the Cabinet has come," "by one dash of the pen, without a law or discussion, by an administrative decision. I do not believe there has ever been such a thing in the history of the country." Assuredly there has not; and, as Mr. Gladstone evidently understood, the thing was impossible, and, of course, did not happen. Mr. Gladstone himself discussed the power given to the Land Commissioners by the Land Act of last Session to revise rents, in one of his Nottingham speeches, and objected that it was inadequate, because it gave them no power to cancel arrears. M. Daryl must either have attributed to Mr. Gladstone words which he could not by any possibility have used, or,—which is very unlikely,—Mr. Gladstone must have suddenly forgotten for the moment what the provisions of the Land Act of last Session were. Either hypothesis is difficult enough, the language attri- buted to Mr. Gladstone by M. Daryl being so precise and so frequently reiterated ; but, of course, misunderstanding is the more probable explanation of the two.
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