Mr. Balfour leads the House with admirable tact, and, with
the help of the Speaker, the Address in reply to the Queen's speech was voted on Monday after only three nights' debate. Yesterday week was Mr. Healy's night, when that ingenious man discovered a deep and dangerous plot in the negotiation between the Chief of the Irish Land Commission, Mr. Justice Bewley, and the new Government, of which it was the ostensible drift to postpone the fixing of fair rents for the future, till the Government had had time to pass their Irish Land Bill next year with modifica- tions certain to introduce some changes favourable to the tenants, so that the fair rents so fixed might represent the conclusions at which Parliament had arrived. The Attorney. General for Ireland (Right Hon. J. Atkinson) showed the astounding topsy-turviness of this contention of Mr. Healy's (a topsy-turviness not perhaps quite involuntary, for Mr. Healy is very anxious to exhibit his ostentatious hostility to the British Government), and Mr. Dillon's amendment to the Address was rejected by a majority of 134 (257 against 123); after which Mr. John Redmond's amendment was rejected by a majority of 130 (243 to 113). Mr. Clancy's amendment in favour of reconsidering the sentences of the prisoners con- victed of treason-felony then came on for discussion, when Sir Matthew White Ridley expressed his perfect willingness to look carefully into any fresh evidence that might be adduced for a reconsideration of those sentences, which of course it is his bounden duty to examine. The Home Secretary's language was treated as promising by Mr. J. Redmond and the Par- nellites,—indeed they made the most of Sir Matthew Ridley's very carefully guarded phrases,—and Mr. Clancy's amendment was then withdrawn.
