Lord Randolph Churchill's speech on Saturday insisted on the very
strong case which Mr. Gladstone ought to make out for an arrangement which, by creating two Parliaments "practically equal and practically independent of each other, and more or less practically in deadly hostility to each other," must undermine all the strength, all the swiftness and alacrity of executive government in the United Kingdom, and sub- stitute a slow, and weak, and divided power for the power which now exists. Now, how, he asked, is it possible to make out such a case in the face of the success which this Govern- ment has had in governing, pacifying, and even stimulating the commerce and industry of Ireland ? Mr. Gladstone's con- tention had been that this could not be done, that without Home-rule nothing but force could hold Ireland down. But now that it has been done, now that the need for Coercion has passed away, it is simply impossible to maintain that an urgent need for this dangerous, violent, and revolutionary measure can be made out. Lord Randolph pointed to the success of the Government in every department, and asked if the electors really intended to insist on sending a successful Government about its business, just as it sends an unsuccessful and harassing Government about its business, simply for the sake of change, when almost any change must be for the worse. If they were so foolish as to take such a course, the lesson they would teach Governments would be that as wisdom and success are to be punished just as folly and failure are punished, it would be better for a Government to reap all possible personal advantages from the temporary exercise of power, in the confidence that whether they do well or ill, they will be sent about their business as soon as an opportunity of sending them about their business occurs.
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