whose behalf it has been taken. It would no doubt have been very disagreeable to Mr Parnell and his associates to remain under the imputations cast upon them by the 'Times'; but from the very first it has rested with themselves whether they would do so or not, and there is something opposed to common-sense and common justice in an interference on their behalf which no other persons in a similar position have ever either expected or obtained. The country would have supported the Government in a resolute determination to leave to the ordinary tribunals of the country issues which could be brought before them if the aggrieved persons desired, and not to remove from the latter the responsibility of neglecting that reasonable remedy which the Constitution has provided. The grounds upon which the Government refused a Select Committee last year would have fully justified them in declining to step out of the beaten track upon the present occasion; and in doing so, with however good an intention, it is to be feared that they have weakened the impregnable position which they had hitherto occupied, without the slightest chance of satisfying their irreconcilable opponents.
The session has of course been hampered, from time to time, by questions arising from the action of those silly but mischievous men who constitute themselves the special "champions" of the people, and in that capacity encourage their misguided clients to come into contact, on every possible occasion, with those guardians of the public peace who are the servants of "the people," and never do their masters better service than when they prevent the assembling of disorderly mobs which represent no persons save the idle and dissolute, and no principle save disorder and confusion. In this free country no one wishes to hinder or prevent the right of public meeting and of free speech, but it is to the interests of "the people" themselves that both should be held under due and proper control. "Free" speech, which excites to disobedience to the law, is not necessary to liberty or advantageous to the general community, and public meetings which disturb the free passage of the public from place to place, and interrupt the ordinary commercial avocations of our commercial population, are not only disadvantageous, but a distinct nuisance to the public. The Cunninghame-Grahams, Conybeares, and other nobodies who try to force themselves into notoriety by the enunciation of extravagant doctrines, by constant abuse of the police, and worse than useless occupation of the time of the House of Commons by their conceited and frivolous harangues, doubtless have their reward, chuckle with gratified vanity as they see their names in the newspapers, and glow with pride as they reflect upon the glorious triumph they have achieved in making themselves a nuisance to the House and to the Ministers. Such persons must be tolerated as part of the price which we pay for our advance in democracy; and it is fortunate that neither in elocutionary nor intellectual power can they be considered dangerous enemies to the Constitution. Still it must be owned that we live in strange times when members of Parliament hold "conversaziones" in Trafalgar Square on Saturdays, and interrupt business on Mondays, in order to impugn the con-
