Unionist. (Great laughter.)

Heaven

save the mark! (Laughter.) I know that he wrote an 'Ode to the Tree of Liberty,' but I have re-read it in vain. to discover any allusion to that particular section of our party. (Laughter.) I cannot speak confidently either as to Burns, because he died nearly a hundred years ago, and in a hundred years he might have changed his opinions very materially (laughter)—but I can speak confidently of the policy of Charles James Fox, who boasted, not that he had given, as we wished to give, a Legislature to Ireland for the purposes of its domestic affairs, but boasted that he had given independence to Ireland, and boasted it as the creed of his party. (Hear, hear.) I can speak confidently of Mr. Burke, who rejoiced when he heard that

announcement of Mr. Fox with regard to independence, and said that it was the happiest day of his life. I can speak confidently of Lord Grey, the passer of the first Reform Bill, who, supported by Sheridan and Tierney, fought the Union Act inch by inch. I can speak confidently of Mr. Grattan, by appealing to every speech he ever delivered in his life. (Cheers.) Now, I want to know, gentlemen-Were these heretics and renegades as we are? Were they sharers of the same ignominy that we labour under? Why, are the dissident Liberals Whigs? Were these not Whigs? Are the dissentient Radicals Radicals? Were these not Radicals? And yet, gentlemen, precisely because we follow these great men-these apostolic fathers of the Liberal party-(cheers)—it is because

we follow them that Mr. Gladstone is gibbeted as a reckless old man, and we as a tail of dupes and fools who are idiotic enough to follow him." (Laughter.)

I shall take yet a third extract. He is speaking of Grattan's Parliament, and he says:

But in 1782 the Irish seized the opportunity of England's weakness, an opportunity which, under those circumstances, you could hardly expect them to deny themselves. (Hear, hear.) They took the opportunity of England's weakness, and took what they wanted, which was a substantive Parliament. Now, I know it is a fashion to run down that Parliament, which is popularly known as Grattan's Parliament-a Parliament that lasted for eighteen years in Ireland. It had indeed many defects. It was a

purely Protestant Parliament, and therefore represented only a section of the population. It was largely controlled by Peers. It was to some extent corrupt. But it had two great merits. In the first place, it was what the Irish people wanted. (Cheers.) There is no principle, gentlemen, which seems SO simple, but which seems somehow to need so much instilling into some of our greatest statesmen, as the fact that the potato that one knows and likes is better than the truffle that one neither knows nor likes. And, therefore, when you wish to give a benefit to a nation, it is better to give something that it likes and understands, rather than something that it neither likes nor understands. (Cheers.) The second merit of that Irish Parliament was this, that in the time of war it was

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the staunch ally of the British Government (cheers)-a staunch ally, and not a source of weakness."

So much for Lord Rosebery in 1887. But at Liverpool the other day he uttered this sentence :

"If Ireland were loyal, I would gladly give her the privileges of the other self-governing colonies."

"If Ireland were loyal." Why, in 1887, as we have just said, Lord Rosebery showed that Grattan's Parliament was granted when Ireland was disloyal, and that Ireland became loyal afterwards. But that is not all. In the same speech, he referred to the disloyalty of the Irish in 1884, and to their alliance with Irish American revolutionists, and then he added: "And my belief is that if you had accepted our propositions