Lord Salisbury also made some very effective remarks upon the
Home-rule question, and the certainty that Ireland would be guided not by its citizens, but by the Irish-Americans, who do not conceal their hatred of Great Britain ; but we prefer to quote what he said upon the policy of the Rosebery Govern- ment in multiplying Bills of the first importance :—" No doubt it is perfectly right to undertake measures of moderate and temperate reform. But this Government has introduced Bills of which there is no parallel since the Long Parliament. No Government has before introduced a Bill for cutting off Ireland from England. No Government has before intro- duced a Bill for disestablishing a portion of the English Church. Without discussing the merits of these things, do they not account for the fact that there is some difficulty in getting them through Parliament, in both the House of Commons and in the House of Lords P " The Lords have a right, said Lord Salisbury, to ask if these measures are demanded by the nation, and that is all they attempt to do. They know they are not demanded by the English, for the majority of English Members are against them, and they are carried only by the over - representation of Ireland and Wales, without which the majority would disappear. If temporary and technical power is pressed so far, the parties will begin a war to the knife, and steady con- stitutional progress will be impossible, each party as it comes into power reversing the policy of its predecessors. Lord Salisbury agreed with Lord Rosebery in considering England the predominant partner in the Kingdom, but reminded his audience, as Lord Rosebery did not do, that predominance in power involved predominance in responsibility. It was a fine speech.
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