the Unionists wicked for doing what they themselves did three
years ago. To say they acted unwisely then is not sufficient. To justify their present attitude, they must say also that they acted wickedly. Sir W. Harcourt, in particular, now treats his former opinions with the small respect they deserve; but he ought, to be consistent, to confess that he was a criminal when he did what Mr. Matthews is doing now. " If Sir William Harcourt would describe Mr. Gladstone as un-Christian and unprincipled in his previous career, and Mr. Gladstone would describe Sir William Harcourt as brutal and tyrannical, I should then be content to ask the various persons who talk so, and more especially the Nonconformist divines who constantly send me highly moral lectures, how it came about that they discovered that our present policy was incon- sistent with Christianity and with morality, exactly on a particular fixed day, at the end of the year 1885." Most men, the French satirists say, will confess sin sooner than stupidity ; but that is not the English way. Mr. Gladstone might repent, and if he did, would assuredly say so ; but Sir W. Harcourt in a white sheet and with a candle in his hand is simply unthinkable. Indeed, why should he repent? Advocates plead for any cause and any criminal.
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