rst create it. As to the second proposal,
anybody could see on turning for a quarter of an hour to the Dominion Act
of 1867, that in some of the particulars deemed by Mr. Chamberlain to be
specially important, a provincial legislature in the Canadian system had
more unfettered powers than the Irish legislature would have under the
bill. Finally, he urged that inquiry into the possibility of satisfying
the Irish demand should be carried on by a committee or commission
representing all sections of the House.(201) In face of projects so
strangely fashioned as this, Mr. Gladstone had a right to declare that
just as the subject held the field in the public mind--for never before had
been seen such signs of public absorption in the House and out of the
House--so the ministerial plan held the field in parliament. It had many
enemies, but it had not a single serious rival.

The debate on the second reading had hardly begun when Lord Salisbury
placed in the hands of his adversaries a weapon with which they took care
to do much execution. Ireland, he declared, is not one nation, but two
nations. There were races like the Hottentots, and even the Hindoos,
incapable of self-government. He would not place confidence in people who
had acquired the habit of using knives and slugs. His policy was that
parliament should enable the government of England to govern Ireland.
"Apply that recipe honestly, consistently, and resolutely for twenty
years, and at the end of that time you will find that Ireland will be fit
to accept any gifts in the way of local government or repeal of coercion
laws that you may wish to give her."(202) In the same genial vein, Lord
Salisbury told his Hottentot fellow-citizens--one of the two _invictae
gentes_ of Mr. Pitt's famous quotation--that if some great store of
imperial treasure were going to be expended on Ireland, instead of buying
out landlords, it would be far more usefully employed in providing for the
emigration of a million Irishmen. Explanations followed this inconvenient
candour, but explanations are apt to be clumsy, and the pungency of the
indiscretion kept it long alive. A humdrum speaker, who was able to
contribute nothing better to the animation of debate, could always by
insinuating a reference to Hottentots, knives and slugs, the deportation
of a million Irishmen, and twenty years of continuous coercion, make sure
of a roar of angry protest from his opponents, followed by a lusty
counter-volle