feeling that there was a great balance of wrong standing to the debit of
England; that if the Irish were turbulent, it was the ill-treatment of
former days that had made them so; and that, whatever might be their
methods, they were fighting for their country. Although, therefore,
there was little social intercourse between us and them, there was
always a hope and a wish that the day might come when the Liberal party
should resume its natural position of joining the representatives of the
Irish people in obtaining radical reforms in Irish government. And the
remarkable speech of February 9, 1882, in which Mr. Gladstone declared
his mind to be open on the subject, and invited the Nationalists to
propound a practicable scheme of self-government, had encouraged us to
hope that this day might soon arrive.

SESSION OF 1883.--Three facts stood out in the history of this
comparatively quiet session, each of which brought us further along the
road we had entered.

One was the omission of Parliament to complete the work begun by the
Land Bill of 1881, of improving the condition of the Irish peasantry and
reorganizing Irish administration. The Nationalist members brought in
Bills for these purposes, including one for amending the Land Act by
admitting leaseholders to its benefits and securing tenants against
having their improvements reckoned against them in the fixing of rents.
Though we could not approve all the contents of these Bills, we desired
to see the Government either take them up and amend them, or introduce
Bills of its own to do what was needed. Some of us spoke strongly in
this sense, nor will any one now deny that we were right. Sound policy
called aloud for the completion of the undertaking of 1881. The
Government however refused, alleging, no doubt with some truth, that
Ireland could not have all the time of Parliament, but must let England