Lord Salisbury praised the House of Lords for having passed
in two hours the Army Regulation Bill, which took the House of Commons 198 hours to get through ; -while Sir Stafford Northcote praised the House of Com- mons for shaping, and building, and rigging the vessel which the House of Lords had only christened and launched. Lord Salisbury again praised the House of Lords for devising what he called a solution of the Irish University question,—a question which had baffled every one, till it occurred to the -Government to propose a measure for the purpose to the Upper House. And Sir Stafford Northeote again praised the House of Commons for adding to that measure the clause without which it would have been a nut with no kernel in it. But the sweetest praise of all, was Sir Stafford Northcote's praise of the House of Commons for sustaining a policy "the result of which would be greatly to increase the honour and -elevate the position of this country." And in the effusion of his heart he magnanimously included his opponents in the praise, though with a double edge to his compliment, for some of them, he said, had earned it by preferring "the sentiment of patriotism to that of party," others, "by so much preferring the sentiment of party to that of patriotism, that they have done us, unwit-
tingly, good service." And then, of course, the party cheers rang out for the party of patriotism; and Sir Stafford sat down, with the delightful consciousness of having both forgiven his enemies, and so forgiven them as to get a slap at them in the very moment of the parting blessing.
