Passing to home policy, Mr. Cowen dilated on the miserable
failure in Ireland, and declared that nothing but Home-rule would mend the mischief there. He asserted that the English people were, as Goethe called them, " practical, but pedantic,"- i.e., that they understood money matters, but were otherwise governed by " phrases," and that one of the phrases which had excited their terror was "Home-rule." Nevertheless, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands and almost all our Colonies had Home-rule, and were all the more loyal for it. Ireland, too, would be all the more loyal for it. And so, we suppose, would be Wales and Cornwall. On the subject of Reform, Mr. Cowen spoke very sensibly. He did not like the working of the present minority principle, but he thought some care should be taken to secure the proportional representation in the House of different sections of opinion ; and be suggested the division of the counties into many more divisions with one Member each, and the division of the great boroughs into sections, such as those of London, as a step in the right direction. In a very eloquent peroration, he called on the working-class to show a life and political conviction of its own, and not to follow slavishly in the steps of the richer classes.
