Mr. Morley made a great effort at Reading on Wednesday
to sustain his very rash and violent judgment on the Irish Local Government Bill. We have always thought such a Bill inopportune, and should not at all regret its postpone- ment ; but the language employed by Mr. Morley and his colleagues is overstrained and preposterous. We are bound to accept his denial that there was any concerted intention to repudiate the Bill; but whether there was concert or not in decrying it, there was certainly a coincidence of exaggeration. The committee which limits the amount of the sum to be ex- pended by a County Council, for instance, works admirably in Scotland ; and it is absurd to say that Ireland does not need a precaution which Scotland requires. The judicial inquiry which might result in the dissolution of a County Council, is on the face of it intended to be a very rare and exceptional proceeding, and Mr. Morley's own experience in the feats of local bodies in Ireland, ought to show him the need of such a last resource. Indeed, in spite of all his elaborate wrath, there was a sentence or two in Mr. Morley's speech at Reading which look as if he were preparing himself for the possible passing of the measure after all.
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