Sir Henry James in a powerful speech said that if civil war ensued the blood shed would rest on the head of the Government, and that if the Bill were carried its opponents would be consoled by the reflection that they would never have been defeated if not betrayed.
In a crammed and excited house Mr. Balfour stated that the Bill was merely a concession to agitation and crime. A million and a half of Protestants in Ireland were prepared forcibly to resist it if it more pasted, and all hopes of peace in Ireland would finally vanish, Mr. Gladstone, rising at miduight, concluded the debate in a vigorous speech. He accused the Opposition of extreme exaggeration and baseless prophecy, and Mr Goschien of grossly me representing the financial clauses; that it was impossible to include the Land Question in the present Bill, but that Government would give the Commons ample time to settle the land question.
The Bill was. read a second time by 347 votes to 304, a majority of 43, and after the division there were frantic cheers for Mr. Gladstone.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.