Sir Hardin g e Giffard, the Tory ex-Solicitor-General, who addressed his constituents
at Launceston on Saturday, appears to be prepared to join the Irish Irreconcilables in the House of Commons in a demand for the repeal of the Protection of Person and Property Act,—which is voted only till the end of September in next year. At least, he is reported to have said that though, under the exceptional circumstances of the case, the Tory Party had assisted the Government to pass that Act, he was not prepared "to pursue the course of blind confidence in her Majesty's Ministers." "I think that if the Government is convinced that the circumstances of Ireland are such that they are unable to try persons by the ordinary law, they must take some other course, by which, while avoiding the exercise of that terrible power, they must be able to vindicate law and justice." And Sir Hardinge Giffard suggested that they might either suspend trial by jury, or pass an Act removing the trials of Irishmen accused of agrarian crimes to England. Whether that means that Sir H. Giffard now repents of having fixed so distant a date as September in next year for the Coercion Act, we do not know; but in spite of his boast that the Tory Party is much less disposed to a coercive policy in Ireland than the Liberals, we fancy that Sir H. Giffard would be astounded at the disgust with which his own party would receive any attempt of his to ally himself with Mr. Parnell in demanding the earlier repeal of the existing Coercion Act. It is only at election times that the Tories choose to combine with the Fenians.
