Mr. Gibson's speech was in strong contrast to his brilliant
chief's. He quizzed, indeed, Sir William Harcourt's speeches, as those of a man at peace with himself who belongs to a saintly Cabinet,—a Cabinet which never has a dark séance, and all whose members wear their hearts upon their sleeves,—but his main argument was directed to prove that the Land League had been considered a strictly illegal confederacy by the Irish Judges so far back as January last, and yet had only been declared illegal and formally suppressed since the opening of the Land Commission, a few weeks ago. Mr. Gibson also claimed for the Tories that in opposition they had not sought to inflame. Ireland, while that had been the deliberate policy of the Liberals when in opposition. There we think Mr. Gibson weak as regards his facts. Party morality is apt to be unscrupulous, but we remember nothing in this way so unscrupulous as the recent alliance between Tory candidates and Mr. Parnell's friends. Mr. Gibson is never unscrupulous himself. But he shuts his eyes to the peccadilloes of his friends.
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