you think voted for the resolution? Fifty-five; and forty-five voted against. 16

I shall

Well, I need not tell you that the English public would not care three rows of pins for an Irish majority of ten. This is what I call negative proof. now give you positive proof. 17 I shall call distinguished authorities. First and foremost I shall take Mr. Gladstone himself. Here is what he said: "It has only been since the termination of the American war, and the appearance of Fenianism that the mind of this country has been greatly turned to the consideration of Irish affairs."

Again in the House of Commons in April, 1868, in reply to Mr. Hardy, Mr. Gladstone said: "The right hon. gentleman says, 'Why did you not deal with the Irish Church in 1866, when you

asked for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act?' My answer is, for a perfectly plain and simple reason. In the first place, circumstances were not ripe then as they are now. Circumstances, I repeat, were not ripe, in so far as we did not then know so much as we know now with respect to the intensity of Fenianism."

I now take a more remarkable statement still. In 1879, exactly ten years after the event, when Mr. Gladstone had abundant time for reflection and consideration, he used these words, addressing a meeting at Dalkeith :-"What happened in the case of the Irish Church? That down to the year 1865, and the dissolution of that year, the whole question of the Irish Church was dead; nobody cared about it, nobody paid attention to

it in England. Circumstances occurred which drew the attention of the people to the Irish Church. I said myself, in 1865, and I believed, that it was out of the range of practical politics. When it came to this-that a great jail in the heart of the metropolis was broken open under circumstances which drew the attention of the English people to the state of Ireland, and when in Manchester [a policeman] was murdered in the execution of his duty, at once the whole country became alive to Irish questions, and the question of the Irish Church revived. It came within the range of practical politics."*

But it is sometimes said, "That was only Mr. Gladstone." Other authorities, however, may be cited. I shall quote Lord Dufferin.

*These occurrences were occasioned by attempts to release Fenian prisoners.

"I entirely agree," says Lord Dufferin, "with the noble Earl [Granville], and with the late Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, [Lord Kimberley], that the attention of this country and the conscience of England with respect to this question [the Church] were much stimulated, if not altogether awakened, by the fact of Fenianism."

I will quote Lord Derby. Writing in the Nineteenth Century, in 1881, he says: "A few desperate men, applauded by the whole body of the Irish people for their daring, showed England what Irish feeling really was, made plain to us the depth of a discontent whose existence we had scarcely suspected, and the rest followed of course." "18

No wonder that Lord John Russell, surveying the whole history of Ireland,

9-(2332)

should have said: "Your oppressions

have taught the Irish to hate, your concessions to brave you. You have

exhibited to them how scanty was the stream of your bounty, and how full the tribute of your fear."

Well, the Land Act of 1870, which purported to secure to the tenant, on eviction, compensation for his improvements, and in certain cases for disturbance, was a failure. Before the Act was passed, Mr. Gladstone said that "notices to quit fell like snow-flakes " on the tenants. After the Act was passed "notices to quit continued' to fall like snow-flakes" still.

The measure failed utterly as many Irish members warned the Government it would fail-in its main purpose, viz., to prevent arbitrary evictions and the exaction of exorbitant rents. A fresh appeal