It is anticipated that the fight will begin all over
again, and be very fierce, when the Bill gets into Committee. All sorts of amendments proposing to limit its scope have been proposed, and as one of the leading Gladstonian organs makes a point of asserting that neither party in the least wish to come at the truth, we suppose that we may take it at its word for at least a few Gladstonians of its own way of thinking Let us dismiss cant from our minds, and look at things as they are. The real question at issue is not in the least the ascertaining of truth. That is much too abstract a question to excite the House of Commons. What honourable Members are thinking of is, how they can best make party capital for their own side by demanding or rejecting, as the case may be, the proposed Commission of Inquiry." Pessimism could hardly go further than that; but it evidently represents at least the writer's personal belief. For our own parts, we think it a gross over- statement of the cynicism on the Gladstonian side. We believe that many Gladstonians are honest enough to wish to know the truth, even if their party suffers by it ; and we should be greatly ashamed of ourselves if we did not wish to know the exact truth, even if the Unionist Party suffered by it. How- ever, if the Bill passes, we will answer for it that the three Judges will spare neither Unionists, nor Parnellites, nor Gladstonians, but discover the facts and tell them plainly. Nevertheless, there are at least some cynics in the House of Commons whose contemptible state of mind the Pall Mall Gazette of Monday truly described.
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