At Ripon, Mr. Gladstone described the Government as them- selves
the law-breakers. So far as we can judge, he refuses to regard the Irish Crimes Act of last Session as law at all, and all enforcement of it he appears to regard as "law-breaking." "Strange as it may seem to say so, at this moment I regard those who are in opposition as the only effective defenders of law and order in Ireland, which are being menaced by the Executive Government, by the Ministers of the Queen, by those subordinate agents who naturally and necessarily take their tone from the Ministers of the Queen." Yes ; it does seem very strange that only those who have resisted a law and regard the law as iniquitous should be regarded as the bulwarks of law. " These " —the Ministers of the Queen—says Mr. Gladstone, "are the men who have been breaking the law ; these are the men who have been setting the example of breaking the law." And it is only by English political demonstrations of abhorrence for the conduct of the Ministers of the Queen, that, according to Mr. Gladstone, the Irish are likely to be restrained "from those acts of violence and outrage to which the example that has been set them within the last few weeks and months by the acts of law itself, have afforded the most painful and most dangerous temptation." Hitherto, at least, Mr. Gladstone's grotesque remedy for Irish violence has not been very effectual. Nor do we think that by redoubling his denunciations of the Govern- ment and the law, he is likely, as he seems to hope, to extinguish the disposition of Irishmen to set law and Government at defiance.
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