vied with Home Rulers in repudiating a return to
the policy of coercion until the effect of some kind of self-government
had been tried. Of course, there were the usual platitudes about the
necessity of maintaining law and order; but there was a _consensus_ of
profession that coercion should not be resorted to unless there was a
fresh outbreak of crime and disorder in Ireland.

Such were the professions of the opponents of Home Rule in 1885 and in
1886. They have now been in office for eighteen months, and what do we
behold? They have passed a perpetual Coercion Bill for Ireland, and the
question of any kind of self-government has been relegated to an
uncertain future. In his recent speech at Birmingham (Sept. 29), Mr.
Chamberlain has declared that the question is not ripe for solution, and
that the question of disestablishment, in Wales, Scotland, and England
successively, as well as the questions of Local Option, local government
for Great Britain, and of the safety of life at sea, must take
precedence of it. That means the postponement of the reform of Irish
Government to the Greek Kalends. What justification can be made for this
change of front? No valid justification has been offered. So far from
there having been any increase of crime in the interval, there has been
a very marked decrease. When the Coercion Bill received the royal assent
last August, Ireland was more free from crime than it had been for many
years past. Nothing had happened to account for the return to the policy
of coercion in violation of the promise to try the experiment of
conciliation. The National League was in full vigour in 1885-1886, when
the policy of coercion was abandoned; boycotting was just as prevalent,
and outrages were much more numerous.

Under these circumstances it is the opponents of Home Rule, not its
advocates, who owe an explanation to the public. They defeated Mr.
Gladstone's Bill, but promised a Bill of their own. Where is their Bill?
We hear nothing of it. They have made a complete change of front. They
now tell us that the grievance of Ireland is entirely economic, and that
the true solution of the Irish question is the abolition of dual
ownership in land combined with a firm administration of the existing
law. England and Scotland are to have a large measure of local
government next year; but Ireland is to wait till a more convenient
season. A more complete reversal of the policy proclaimed last summer by
the so-call