g all amendments which came from
Irish members. When these amendments seemed to us right, we voted for
them, but they were almost always defeated by the union of the Tories
with the steady Ministerialists. Subsequent events have proved that many
were right, but, whether they were right or wrong, the fact which
impressed us was that in matters which concerned Ireland only, and lay
within the exclusive knowledge of Irishmen, Irish members were
constantly outvoted by English and Scotch members, who knew nothing at
all of the merits of the case, but simply obeyed the party whip. This
happened even when the Irish members who sat on the Liberal side (such
as Mr. Dickson and his Liberal colleagues from Ulster) joined the
Nationalist section in demanding some extension of the Bill which the
Ministry refused. And we perceived that nothing incensed the Irish
members more than the feeling that their arguments were addressed to
deaf ears; that they were overborne, not by reason, but by sheer weight
of numbers. Even if they convinced the Ministry, they could seldom hope
to obtain its assent, because the Ministry had to consider the House of
Lords, sure to reject amendments which favoured the tenant, while to
detach a number of Ministerialists sufficient to carry an amendment
against the Treasury Bench, the Moderate Liberals, and the Tories, was
evidently hopeless.

At the end of the session the House of Lords came again upon the scene.
It seriously damaged the Bill by its amendments, and would have
destroyed it but for the skill with which the head of the Government
handled these amendments, accepting the least pernicious, so as to
enable the Upper House without loss of dignity to recede from those
which were wholly inadmissible. Several times it seemed as if the
conflict would have to pass from Westminster to the country, and, in
contemplating the chances of a popular agitation or a dissolution, we
were regretfully obliged to own that the English people cared too little
and knew too little about Irish questions to give us much hope of
defeating the House of Lords and the Tories upon these issues.

An incident which occurred towards the end of the session seems, though
trifling in itself, so illustrative of the illogical position in which
we stood towards Ireland, as to deserve mention. Mr. Forster, still
Chief Secretary, had brought in a Bill for extinguishing the Queen's
University in Ireland, and creating in place of it a body t