Lord Hartington, in addressing a Liberal Unionist meeting at Bakewell
yesterday week, dwelt on the great advantages of the strict alliance between the Conservatives and the Liberal Unionists, and on the honourable way in which the Conserva- tives bad adhered to the treaty between them, and on the steady and yet progressive government which that prudent conduct had secured for us. Turning to Ireland, he pointed out that the more the two factions of the old Parnellite Party quarrel, the quieter Ireland becomes, till at the present moment it seems almost certain that the "Plan of Campaign" has collapsed altogether,—as no doubt it has, chiefly from want of harmony between the two sections as to the use of the funds for the help of evicted tenants. This fact suggests most pointedly, he said, that the disturbances in Ireland which the Crimes Act of 1887 was passed , to repress, proceeded. less froin the people themselves than from those who ha& constituted themselves the leaders of the people, the first effectual paralysing of whose power had resulted in profound tranquillity. That is quite true ; but the unsatisfactory feature of the case is this, that the more conspicuously successful the- policy of the Government becomes, the less is the importance attached by their followers to the duty of giving them hearty support. While they urgently needed a strong Government, the Tories supported that Government ; when they had reaped, the advantage of the Administration's firmness, they fell away.
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