Tt was a great speech, and a con speech which Mr. Chamberlain delivered.
here was some hard-hitting in it but it was not acrimonious, And in regard to the terms of peace and the settlement which should follow, there was very little to which any Liberal except " pronounced Pro-Boer could take exception. Of course he was bound to defend some acts of the Govermuent which many patriotic Britons now regard as blunders—particularly the famous " Banishment" proclamation, which he thinks may be useful in depriving Mr. Schalk Burger and other irreconcilables ey the chance of fomenting disturbances when; murder. peace hax been restored. But he more that stress on the point that, even if the proclamation were wrong, it would be regarded a a sign of weakness if it were withdrawn in the face of the enemy. That at least, provides room for hope that when the enemy have surrendered the proclamation will be withdrawn. The keynote of his speech was however, that the Government donot insist oh unconditional surrender. "We are not animated," he said, "by any vindictive feelings. We are not deaf to overtures from any responsible person, but we do not take any action that may show weakness o vacillation."
Lord Rosebery's Position.
The result of Nationalist, Pro-Boer and Imperialist obstruction was that the vote of censure was rejected by the very substantial majority of 210, And incidentally, the effect of the debate was, as I have said, to strengthen materially the position of Lord Rose-Dory. Nobody had anything but praise for the Chesterfield speech. On the strength of it Mr. Chamberlain argued that Lord Rosebery was practically at one with, the Government; while Sir William "Harcourt opponent of the Government, with whom it William himself is, in' the main, agreement. That is even more remarkable than Mr. Chamberlain's for everyone knows that Sir and antagonism towards bery was the real cause of the {noble carl's retirement from the Liberal Headership. But. what will help Lord Rosebery most of all it Henry Camp-{bell-Datmerman's signal failure in this debate to please either section of his party. Ireland.
Now the House is engaged in debating an Trish amendment to the address; but nobody takes much interest in it. It con-dernns the Government for not compelling the Irish landlords to sell their estates at Jow prices to the tenants, for the reinforcement of the Coercion Act, and for numerous other sins of omission and commission in Ireland. But although two or three Trish M.P."s have succeeded in getting into prison, and one or two Irish cities have exacted pledges from their new mayors that they will not attend the Coronation, there is no fear of any great disturbances in Treland. The country is too prosperous just now for that. There is no doubt, however, that Ireland will be to the fore throughout this Parliament. Until the new rules of procedure are carried every effort at obstruction will be made; and probably the new rules will not be carried until the Session is pretty near its end.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.