at least security from intolerable oppression, intolerable cruelty, and intolerable barbarism. They did not ask-they did not desire to set up a separate and an autonomous Armenia, which might be the cause of umbrage and even of danger to European peace; but they did insist, and with their allies Iwould have continued to insist at the Court of Constantinople, upon due guarantees against the recurrence of such horrors as occurred last year. I trust that the new Government-though its head has not always been discreet in his allusions to that subject-I trust, I say, that the new Government will not flinch or flag in the course we have laid out, for if otherwise they will have an account to settle, not with the outgoing Government, for that is nothing, but with the whole Christian population of the United Kingdom.

"In all its history Ireland was never so tranquil, never so contented as she is at the present moment. What is that due to? [Cries of " Morley," and loud cheers.] You have anticipated my answer. It is due, in the first place, to confidence in the Liberal Administration, and especially in Mr. John Morley; and secondly, to the vigilant, the just, and the sympathetic administration of Ireland conducted by that gentleman. And, on the other side, we must gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Irish party in Parliament, who have sat day after day and night after night in supporting us on measures in which they had little or no

Wabat does Ireland want?

791

interest, compelled sometimes to see measures in which they had an interest rejected or deferred, and yet not unwilling to take their share with us in the legislation of England, Scotland, and Wales. We had given them, and we wished to give them, a fair share of parliamentary time. They had almost all our first session; they had a part of our second session, and they would have had an important part of our third session. Well, that I am afraid will always be the case so long as you insist on keeping Irish members in London transacting British affairs, when their sole wish is to go to Dublin and transact Irish affairs. That is the Irish question. What is it that the Irish want? Is it separation? But you are told so by those who ought to know better, and who have not scrupled to stigmatise the whole of our party by the nickname of Separatists. No, it is not separation they want; they could not if they would, and they would not if they could. There is not a Liberal in this hall who would not resist the idea of separation, and, what is more, separation would be death to Irish commerce. The interests of Irish commerce, to put things at their lowest, are a safer and a higher bond of union than the legislative Act of the beginning of the century which was forced through the corrupt Irish Parliament. But I believe that, beyond and above commercial bonds, there is a surer and higher bond, both of sympathy and of affection,

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due largely to the exertions of Mr. Gladstone; due in the next place to Mr. John Morley; and due in the last, I hope in some degree, to us, the humbler members of the Liberal party.

"Well, then, if it is not separation,' what is it that the Irish want? They want a local legislature for the management of those Irish affairs which they allege, and justly allege, are grossly misunderstood, grossly mismanaged, and grossly neglected at the Palace of Westminster. We speak of their occupying a disproportionate amount of the time of the House. They do not wish to Occupy one moment of our time. They only ask to be allowed to go to their own country and to their own people. When I think of their aspirations and the obstacles to them, I am irresistibly reminded of the old story in the Old Testament, of the children of Israel who wished to leave Egypt, and of Pharaoh who would not let them go. Sometimes there were signs and portents, and then Pharaoh softened and relented; but the king's heart, we are constantly told, hardened, and he would not let them go. But they went at last. England-not Scotland, not Wales-England alone is the Pharaoh in this matter who will not let the people go. And how are we to convince this obdurate monarch? In the first place, as I think, by pointing to the patience, the respect for law, and the capacity for self-government shown by the Irish people.