On Tuesday, Mr. Gorst moved an amendment to the Address,
which was debated during that evening and the whole of Wed- nesday and Thursday, expressing a hope that the recent change in Irish policy would be maintained," that no further concessions would be made to lawless agitators," and that secret societies would continue to receive the energetic vigilance of the Govern- ment. His object was to make out that the Cabinet had been divided, like the Irish Invincibles, into an inner and an outer circle, and that Mr. Gladstone had been made the dupe and the instrument of an inner circle in the Cabinet, whose object was the moral assassination of Mr. Forster. Sir William Harcourt replied with much warmth and ability, showing that there had been no difference in the Cabinet as to the failure of the first Coercion Act, and that all alike were compelled to ask for fresh powers. Mr. Forster differed from his colleagues in desiring to impose conditions on which alone Mr. Parnell ought to be released, but not at all on any fundamental issue of Irish policy. Mr. Gibson took up Mr. Gorst's charges in more respectful language, and challenged the Irish party to clear themselves from the accusation that they had allowed Land-League funds to be appropriated to the purposes of the outragemongers.
