In relation to home affairs, Lord Salisbury made a rather
remarkable statement "The whole," lie said, "of the legislative work which we shall undertake next year, is that which we already have in our previous administration pledged ourselves to undertake." That looks as if the Government had already abandoned the idea of taking action next Session on either of the Irish questions on which they have appointed Commissions of Inquiry, though certainly, as we understood it, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer and the Irish Secretary were pledged on the meeting of Parliament to submit any Irish legislation which these inquiries had, in their opinion, shown to be desirable. Alluding apparently to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Bradford speech on obstruction and the Closure, Lord Salisbury further said :—" The [legislative] machine works slowly. Some of us entertain a not very sanguine hope that it may be made to work a little faster. But in any case, legislation is to be judged not by its quantity, not by its rapidity, but by the caution and circumspection with which it is undertaken." That does not look much like an intention of proposing further legislation for Ireland.
