We are glad to see that Mr. Muudella, iu his
manly speech on Wednesday at Sheffield, had a good word for Mr. Forster, for whom a good word is now hardly ever said, because the inheritance of difficulty with which he has had to deal, and with the most ostensible part of which he has had the strength to refuse to deal superficially, has eclipsed, for all thoughtless observers, the constancy of Mr. Forster's purpose. " In Mr. Forster," said Mr. Mundella, " they had a man than whom no one was more able, more capable, more honest, and more sym- pathetic. If any man could solve the difficulty in Ireland, he could." We do not say that Mr. Forster has made no mis- takes ; he certainly should have insisted on having a stronger Lord-Lieutenant than Earl Cowper, who is a cypher where he should be a power. But the test of Mr. Forster's administra- tion is yet to come. And we augur not ill, but well, from his refusal to have immediate recourse at the first pinch to the barren and stale device of mere coercion. Force must accom- pany reform, but should neither precede nor supersede it.
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