Mr. Gladstone spoke for two hours and a quarter, and
when he sat down, the late Solicitor-General, Sir Edward Clarke, followed him with a very skilful criticism, pointing out how little excuse there is in the present state of Ireland for any revolutionary change, and remarking that if Mr. Gladstone had only once sat with an Irish colleague in the Cabinet, that must have been of late years entirely his own fault. The Legislative Council would at best be a mere drag on. revolu- tionary policy, for if the 103 Irish Members are divided, as they are now, into 80 Jacobins and 23 Conservatives, as 80 is more than 48 + 23, the whole Legislative Council could not arrest persecution of the minority. The Bill appeared to have been drafted in detachments and some of it stereotyped before the rest was conceived. The provisions for excluding Irish Members from voting on British measures could never work. If they proposed to extend any Bill to Ireland, the Irish Members could always vote on that proposal, and, if it was carried,"could vote through the whole discussion. Mr. Gladstone he thought hardly entitled to propose, and at the same time cheapen, by depreciation, so singular a provision as that which concerned the retention of Irish. Members. The rest of Monday's debate was only remarkable for a very energetic attack, by Colonel Saunderson, on behalf of Ulster, delivered against the Bill.
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