Mr. Balfonr's answer to Mr. Gladstone was remarkable for the
declaration that he did not consider that local government ought necessarily to be withheld until Ireland foregoes her claim to separate self-government. With political theories such as these, he said, we have nothing to do. Till, however, certain conditions have been fulfilled, the extension of local government to Ireland would not be opportune. Equality with England in regard to legislative enactments ought to be our desire, but "equality of treatment implies similarity of conditions." The principle is, we believe, a sound one,—Parliament has never accorded absolute equality of treatment to London, when compared with other English cities, for the very good reason that similarity of conditions do not prevail. Lord Randolph Churchill's intervention in the debate, we have dwelt on else- where. His speech was an ingenious attempt to put the Government in the wrong. For this purpose, he laboured to show that the Tory Party were, by the declaration made by him on their behalf at the opening of 1886, committed to extending local government to Ireland in season and out of season. "I will be content no longer," he declared, after quoting the words of that declaration, "to bear solely the responsibility of those words in which I represented the policy of the Government." Mr. Chamberlain, in a short speech at the end of the debate, expressed his well-known views on the subject. He did not, however, press them unduly. "I should be sorry to pledge the Government to deal with this matter even of necessity in the next Session of Parliament." On a division being taken, after Mr. Parnell had moved the Closure, the second reading of the Bill was lost by 282 to 195.
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