we can fairly also congratulate ourselves upon that great and wise policy, to which this Government devoted itself, having been continued of doing its utmost to popularise and to strengthen our Army, and to improve the condition of our soldiers; and also to add efficiently to the strength of our Navy. My Lords, I have seen a criticism on that policy of the Government which I must say I think a most unworthy one. I have seen it stated both on political platforms and in the columns of important journals that although the Government presided over by the noble Marquess can certainly say that they have not spent a penny in actual warfare since they came into office, yet they cannot deny that they have spent very large sums of money upon preparations for war in the time of peace. I said, my Lords, that I think that is an unworthy criticism I will go -I further, and I say I think it is a most short-sighted and mischievous criticism. My Lords, which nation is it that would be most exposed to attack in modern days the nation that is prepared for war, or the nation that is not? And which section of the population is it which would first feel the dire effects of such a calamity as the defeat of our Navy on the high seas? My Lords, you know very well it would not be the rich in this country, it would not be the capitalists, or the landowners, or the employers of labour, nor would it be those who have got money in the Bank; but it would be the working classes of this country, who would most assuredly be the first to feel that rise in the price of provisions and that dearth of employment which could be the only result of such a calamity as I have mentioned. My Lords, in these days of great democratic power, when the wrath of the masses is perhaps more easily aroused than it is allayed, I would not envy the feelings of any Minister at whose door it could fairly be laid that he had contributed to the defeat of the Navy by starving that Navy and by practising a false economy in order to win some cheap popularity by the introduction of what are called "popular Budgets." My Lords, perhaps your Lordships will consider that this is neither the proper time nor the proper place to make any remarks about the political situation in another place; but yet I would submit to your Lordships that the prospect of future legislation which is mentioned in the third paragraph of Her Majesty's Speech is so intimately bound up with the present political situation that it is almost impossible to deal with the one and to ignore the other. I noticed the other day, my Lords, that a prominent Member of the Irish Party, speaking in Ireland, said— "We have the whole strength and power of Great Britain pledged to our cause." And then he said "After six years' reflection the electorate of Great Britain has deliberately elected a majority to Parliament pledged to the demands of the Irish nation.” My Lords, all I can say to that is that unless the hon. Gentleman places on geographical expressions a somewhat different interpretation from that in common use in our elementary schools, I think it is a somewhat novel way for Great Britain to show her determination to grant Home Rule by returning a majority of about fifteen against it. My Lords, there is certainly a majority of the United Kingdom returned against the policy of the present Government, and that majority is called a majority strongly in favour of Home Rule; but I think, my Lords, it is a matter of common observation how that majority has been obtained. I would submit to your Lordships that it has been obtained mainly through appealing to individual and particular classes of the electorate, and by giving those classes to understand that the particular legislation which they most desire, and which they believe will do them the most good, will forthwith be adopted and placed in the forefront of national politics. Well, my Lords, for this reason the future policy which is mentioned in Her Majesty's Speech will be watched with a considerable amount of interest, and we shall be able to judge for ourselves as to whether performance in office bears any semblance to criticism in Opposition. I venture to say, my Lords, that there will be some considerable disappointments expressed in the various sections of the electorate. I should say that most certainly there will be very considerable disappointment in the minds re of those agricultural voters who have | but from what we have seen in years contributed so largely to the return gone by from the action of the Nationof that gallant forty, unless they see alist Party in Ireland we do fear very a very speedy approach of that great intolerance against those who millennium of excellent cottages and wish to be honest and to pay their way, high wages, coupled with unlimited and who are likely to oppose what is quantities of the best land held at known as the Nationalist policy. My the minimum of rent, which is to be Lords, I am certain that everybody in established by the installation of your Lordships' House, and I believe practically omnipotent parish councils. nearly everybody in the country, is now My Lords, I am not here to-day to willing to admit that the Catholics of attempt to speak against the question Ireland in days gone by were subject of what is called Home Rule for Ire- to a most unjust and most cruel perland; but still I would, with your secution; and, my Lords, we must Lordships' permission, before I sit remember that the memory of that down, like just to refer to one aspect persecution remains in the minds of the of that question. Attempts have been Irish people, and I think it is only made, as your Lordships well know, just to make a certain amount of allowup and down the country to try ance in that regard. But still, at the and prove to the people that the same time, we must remember that we noble Marquess levelled insults at, and live in the nineteenth century, and not maligned wilfully, the Roman Catholic in the eighteenth or the seventeenth. body of the United Kingdom. I am We have got to look at things as they certain that your Lordships would are, and are likely to be in the immeconsider it gross presumption on my diate future; we have not so much to part to attempt, in the presence of take into consideration what they were the noble Marquess, any sort of ex- or were not some 150 years ago; and planation of his words; but still II do most distinctly feel that, even should like to say that I can only regard the interpretation which has been placed upon those words as very little short of a most gross calumny. I think, my Lords, that if a certain section of the Irish clergy, by certain acts and by a certain abuse of their position, have brought down upon themselves some rather sharp criticism from this side of the House they have only got themselves to blame. Then, my Lords, we have been told that one of the principal arguments against Home Rule is the fear of religious persecution. I was glad to see that the noble Duke, who sits above the Gangway opposite, (the Duke of Argyll), in one of his vigorous and eloquent addresses some two or three months ago, stated that in his opinion the talk of religious persecution was all humbug. My Lords, I venture to agree with him. I think that religious persecution in the sense in which that term was known many years ago is now-a-days impossible. It is not religious persecution that we fear; it is intolerance, not necessarily religious, but certainly political. We do not fear intolerance against a man necessarily because he is a Catholic or a Protestant, after making all allowances that can possibly be made, it is impossible to deny that the polling-booth and the vanguard of an election mob are not the places where the clergy of any denomination can add to their self-respect, or to that esteem and power for good which by the nature of their calling should be theirs. In conclusion, my Lords, I would with all respect venture to bring before you an opinion which I can only claim as my own humble one. I certainly do feel that there is a very large section of Her Majesty's subjects in Ireland who still have a great right to claim additional advantages and additional freedom in the matter of higher education, and in the matter of removing vexatious and irritating restrictions in the conduct of the management of the elementary schools. But, my Lords, I do not by any means despair of these matters being dealt with and of these boons being conceded through the generosity and the broadminded liberality of the Parliament at Westminster; and, looking to the fact how Ireland has been torn and sundered by political and religious jealousies in days gone by, and how at the present moment there are all the elements for a renewal of those | inasmuch as I am unable to bring to jealousies, I do strongly feel that in the bear any of that scholastic knowledge interest of religious peace, and liberty with which he was able to amuse and in Ireland it would be far better for interest your Lordships' House. With those matters to be dealt with by an reference to the Gracious Speech from the independent Parliament at Westminster Throne, I am sure that it is a source of than by any Parliament that could be the greatest satisfaction, not only to instituted at Dublin. My Lords, I your Lordships' House but also to all have now, in conclusion, to thank your the people of this country, to ascertain Lordships for your most kind indul- that the Parliamentary business has gence and your kind reception of me been so successfully completed that it to-day. I could not help remembering will not now be necessary to detain the other day a speech that was made Parliament at this unusual season of by a noble Earl who sits on the Front the year, and that Members of both Bench opposite, the late Secretary for Houses will be able to take that Foreign Affairs, when he stated that it rest and recreation which is so necesrequired, I think he said, a considerable sary, not only for their health, but also amount of courage to address your for the further prosecution of their Lordships' House. If my memory duties. My Lords, with reference to serves me aright, he said that your some of the beneficent legislation which Lordships rarely applaud and never has been referred to in the third parasmile. Perhaps, my Lords, I may graph of Her Majesty's Gracious therefore be excused for having ap- Speech, I would ask you to pardon proached my task to-day with a certain me if I give precedence to some amount of trepidation, and I can only of those thank your Lordships for having made that task so much easier than I had dared to anticipate. My Lords, I beg to move the Motion which stands in my name. Moved, "That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, thanking Her Majesty for Her Most Gracious Speech from the Throne, as follows: 'MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Majesty for the Gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament." -(The Earl of Denbigh). *THE EARL OF POWIS (who wore the uniform of a Deputy Lieutenant): My Lords, in rising to second the Motion which has been so ably proposed by my noble Friend, I would say that it is a curious circumstance that in the year 1859, which is 33 years ago, my predecessor moved in this House the Address in reply to the Queen's Speech under circumstances almost identical with the present. My Lords, I would ask you, therefore, to accord to me that attention which you always so kindly extended to him on the few and rare occasions on which he spoke; and I would ask that it should be tempered with indulgence, measures which more closely interest the Principality in which it is both my pleasure and my privilege to dwell. By the passing of a measure, which has amply justified the hopes of its creators, the disgraceful scenes which at one time characterised the collection of tithes. have been done away with, and I hope the question has now been laid to rest by the Tithe Act of 1891 once and for ever, to the satisfaction of all interested parties. I have further to congratulate Her Majesty's Government, if they will not think it presumptuous of me in doing so, upon the success which has already attended the measures which they have introduced bearing upon technical and elementary education. It is, indeed, a source of great satisfaction to the dwellers in the rural dis tricts to observe the efforts which have been made by Her Majesty's Government to assist them in obtaining a better knowledge of those handicrafts by which they obtain their livelihood; and also to the poorer classes to find that they are now able to save the money which was formerly paid for the education of their children, either for the better clothing of their children or for their better food-or still more, for laying by a sum to start their children, when they leave school, in some trade or business. And, my Lords, this measure should largely the minority in this House, according | House, and with the continuation of as we sit upon your right hand or your left. But most of those who now hear me have been in this House under your Speakership, both as members of a minority and members of a majority; and, Sir, the unanimous decision which has just been come to is conclusive evidence-looked at from either point of view-that Members of the House, after a long experience, are of opinion that there is no man among their ranks so worthy to be entrusted with the responsibility they have just conferred upon you. If I may say so, Mr. Speaker, there is another ground of congratulation on this occasion. I think if there is any man who ought to be congratulated it is he who undertakes duties of very great difficulty and very great onerousness and very great responsibility, and who knows himself, and is known by all, to be equal to every call and every demand which those duties can possibly make upon him. The occupants of your Chair, Sir, have from time immemorial had very important duties to perform. They have had, in times now long gone by, to protect the interests of this House from external aggression. They now have duties cast upon them very different in kind, and, if I may venture to say so, far more weighty and important. We ask from our Speaker not merely a great knowledge of the traditions and precedents of this House, not merely kindliness and courtesy, not merely an impartiality which is above suspicion, but we ask from him also tact and rapidity of decision under circumstances often of great difficulty; we ask from him great Parliamentary courage; and we ask from him, above all, those qualities which can only be described. as the qualities of personality, without which the most profound knowledge of Parliamentary precedents would be absolutely useless and inoperative in the occupant of that Chair. Sir, you in some respects may be said to embody not only the traditions of the House, but the public conscience of the House, so far as the conduct of Debate is concerned ; and on you, therefore, rests, more than on any other single Member of this House, responsibilities in connection with the traditions of this Mr. A. J. Balfour its reputation, which are indeed of the most serious character. If I consider the whole hierarchy of the responsible officials of this great community, none appears to me to have in his keeping interests of greater magnitude than, Sir, have been entrusted to you; and assuredly it is a matter of congratulation to every Member of this House, that every single one of us believes that in your keeping, Sir, those great interests are secure. Then *MR. SPEAKER-ELECT, standing on the upper step, said: Standing have to make in this place, I my acknowledgments to the House for having again elected me to the Chair. As I perfectly recognise the great responsibility I have undertaken, and with which you have entrusted me, I can only say that I place such abilities as I possess at your command, and as your servant, your officer, I hope to discharge those duties to your satisfaction, and in some measure justify the choice you have now made. Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."(Mr. A. J. Balfour). Motion agreed to. House adjourned at five minutes before Three o'clock. HOUSE OF LORDS, Friday, 5th August, 1892. The House met at Twelve of the clock. The Lords Commissioners-namely, The LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord Halsbury); The CHANCELLOR of the DUCHY of LANCASTER (The Duke of Rutland); The SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA Viscount Cross); The SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Lord 'Knutsford); The SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF TRADE (Lord Balfour of Burleigh)-being in their Robes, and seated on a Form placed between the Throne and the Woolsack, commanded the Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod to let the Commons know "The Lords Commissioners desire their immediate Attendance in this House." Kingdom, in obedience to Her Majesty's commands, to lay claim, by humble petition to Her Majesty, for the right of access to Her Majesty at all times, for the right of freedom of speech in Debate, and for the right of freedom from arrest of the persons of Her Majesty's Commons. I lay claim to these privileges in accordance with the usual custom, and I beg that the most And the Commons being at the Bar; favourable construction should be put approve and confirm you as their HOUSE OF COMMONS, Speaker." Then MR. SPEAKER said— "MY LORDS, "I submit myself, with all humility, to Her Majesty's gracious commands. It is now my duty, in the name and on behalf of the Commcns of the United VOL. VII. [FOURTH SERIES.] Friday, 5th August, 1892. The House met at Twelve of the clock. The House being met, and Mr. SPEAKER-ELECT having taken the Chair, C |