Lord Derby's speech at the meeting of Kent Unionists on
Tuesday, was one of those perfect efforts of impartial state- ment which read as if man were really a being of "pure reason,"—instead of having about 1 per cent. of "pure reason" in his convictions. What was the condition of things in Ireland, heusked, that rendered the Crimes Act necessary ? The partisans of the National League not only combine to disobey the law, "but they combine to punish any one who obeys it." Now, in such a state of things, what would the Opposition have done if they had been in power ? Would they have said that no one ought to be expected to obey the law unless he chose ? That is pure anarchy. Doubtless Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville would re- pudiate such anarchy, but it is difficult to say what the Opposition would have done, had they been in power, except what Mr. Balfour is doing. To assume that the acts of those who resist the law are due to pure patriotism, however mistaken, is on the face of it absurd. That
• there is a very large admixture of meaner motives,—of blind passion or love for notoriety,—is obvious. As for the fuss about Mr. Parnell and the forged letters, what that proves is that "Home-rulers, both English and Irish, are delighted to get something to talk about that enables them to get away from the subject of Home-rule." As to throwing over the loyal minority in Ireland, Lord Derby never had been a believer in the policy of "sacrificing friends in order to conciliate enemies." The whole speech was an embodiment of calm daylight.
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