The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-19 00:00:00

Naval and Military intelligence.

Her Majesty's turret-ship Prince Albert was on
Saturday undocked at Woolwich, and was taken
down to the moorings at Greenhithe to adjust her
compasses, for Plymouth. Before leaving the dock

she was inspected by Prince Arthur, accompanied
by Major Elphinstone. The Prince Albert's com-
plement consists of one captain, two lieutenants,
one master, one paymaster, one surgeon, one clerk,
one midshipman, two gunners, one boatswain, one
carpenter, one chief engineer, one engineer, and two
assistants, two sergeants and 25 privates Royal Ma-

rine Artillery—total, all told, 185, including seamen.
The Royal Alfred, 18, partially ironcased ship,
of 4,045 tons and 800 horse power, steamed out of

Portsmouth harbour on Saturday morning, under
the command of Captain H. Caldwell, C. 8., com-
manding her Majesty's ship Asia and the Steam
Reserve at Portsmouth, on her light-draught
trial of speed over the measured mile course in Stokes
Bay. Messrs. Ward and Murdoch conducted the
trial on the part of the Admiralty, and Mr. Herbert
Maudslay, with Mr. Warrener, represented the
makers of the ship's machinery—Messrs. Maudslay,
Field, and Sons. Six runs were made with full-

boiler power, the result being as undermentioned.
The wind was from N.N.W., at a force of two dur-
ing the full-power runs, and a force of three during
the half-power runs, the sea being quite smooth.
The ship is not yet rigged, nor has she any stores or
any part of her armament on board, having nothing
at present, in fact, inside her hull but her engines
and boilers with sufficient coal in her bunkers for
the day's trial. Under these conditions the ship,
on entering upon her first mile, drew 22ft 10in of
water aft, and 19ft forward. The runs with full-

boiler power, with the tide, gave the following re-
sults :-Ist run—Speedof ship, 13.186 knots; steam
pressure, 21.51 b ; vacuum, 21in ; revolutions of en-
gines, 61. 2d run—Speed, 13.284 knots ; steam
pressure, 17.51 b ; vacuum, 22in ; revolutions, 61.
3d run—Speed, 13.749 knots ; steam pressure,
20.51 b ; vacuum, 21 in ; revolutions, 61.5. The runs
against the tide gave the following results :-Ist run
—Speed, 12.857 knots ; steam pressure, 211 b ;
vacuum, 22in ; revolutions, 6F5. 2d run—Speed,
12.543 knots; steam pressure, 21.51 b; vacuum.
21in ; revolutions, 61. 3d run—Speed, 12.371
knots ; steam pressure, 211 b ; vacuum, 21in ; revo-
lutions, 61.5. The mean speed of the ship at full
power was 13166 knots. The runs with half-boiler
power, with the tide, gave:-Ist run—Speed,l2.73l;
pressure, 221 b ; vacuum, 22in ; revolutions of en-
gines, 48. 2d run—Speed, 10.055 ; pressure, 221 b;
vacuum, 22in ; revolutions, 48. Against the tide-
-Ist run—Speed, 9.9022 ; pressure, 21.51 b ; vacuum,
22in ; revolutions, 48. 2d run—Speed, 8.955 ;
pressure, 21.51 b ; vacuum, 22in ; revolutions, 48.
The mean speed of the ship with half-boiler power
was 10.191 knots. In the circles to port and to
starboard, with full-boiler power, the ship moving
round to port, the folowing were the results :
Time occupied in getting up helm, lmin 35sec ; men
at wheel, 11 ; turns of the wheel, 3.5 ; angle of the
rudder, 22 deg. ; half-circle male in 2min 57sec ;

full circle made in smin 9sec. The revolutions of
engines before going on circle were.6l ; afterwards,
59. The ship moving round to starboard gave the
following results :—Time occupied in getting up
helm, Imin 15sec ; men at wheel, 11 ; turns of the
wheel, 3 ; angle of the rudder, 20 deg ; half circle
made in 2min 57sec; full circle ditto, smin 30sec ;
revolutions of engines before going in the circle,
61 ; afterwards, 58. The trial was thoroughly
satisfactory, The speed of the ship was half a knot
in excess of what had been anticipated, and the
machinery could not be excelled in the regularity
and smoothness of its working. The engines are
by Maudslay, Field, and Son, and are of the ordi-
nary Maudslay two cylinder description, such as
are on board her Majesty's turret-ship Royal Sove-
reign and other vessels in her Majesty's navy. They
are of 850-horse power, nominal, and have
cylinders of 85 inches diameter and 4 feet
stroke. They drive a Griffith's screw, fitted with
the Maudslay shifting blades, set on Saturday
at a pitch of 27 feet 6 inches, the screw's dia-
meter being 19 feet 2k inches, and the lengTh
of the blades four feet. The last improvements of
Maudslay and Field's marine engines have been
supplied by the firm in the three-throw cylinder
form to her Majesty's ships Octavia and Lord War-
den, and in the two throw cylinder form to her
Majesty's ship Prince Consort and Agincourt, the
latter vessel at present being the swiftest vessel of
war under steam in the world. In The Sun of the
3d ult. was given a detailed description of the Royal
Alfred, with the too conversions she had under-
gone prior to final completion in her present form.
A very brief description of the ship, her armour,
and her armament is therefore all that is necessary
to give here. The Royal Alfred is a wooden
frigate, 273 ft. long between perpendiculars, and is
partially plated with Sheffield manufactured armour-
plates of 4 and 6 inches thickness, supplied from
the rolling-mills of John Brown and Company
(limited), of the Atlas Steel and Iron Works, and
of Charles Cammell and Company (limited), of the
Cyclops Steel and Iron Works. The disposition of

this armour is as follows :-1. A band entirely round

the ship at the water-line, Gin. in thickness amid-
ships, and 4iin. in thickness at the ends. 2. The
curve of the bows and stern covered with 4fin.
plates from the water-line belt upwards to the beams
supporting the upper deck. 3. 100 ft. of each side
of the ship amidships plated with 6in. plates, ex-
tending upwards from the water-line belt to the
upper deck beams, with athwartship bulkheads of
4fin. plates built up across the ship's gun-deck at
each end of the 100 ft. of 6in. plating. This central
disposition of the ship's armour, therefore, forms
an armour-enclosed box, the sides of which are
piercdd with ten gunports, five on each side, which
have been specially constructed and fitted for work-
ing ten 12i-ton gunsas broadside guns. The ports
necessarily occupy a large combined area, but each
port is strengthened by a wrought-iron elliptical-
shaped port plate, le; in on the wooden planking at
the back of the Gin. plates, which makes the thick-
ness of protecting
irm round the edge of each port
10in. There is, therefore, as will be seen from the
foregoing description of the disposition of the armour,
a space both forward and aft of the central Gin.
armour-plating
without armour at all above the
water-line belt, about 30ft. aft and 70ft. forward,
or about 100 ft. in length on each side of the ship.
The explanation 01 this partial plating of the ship's
sides is, that the kip was originally intended to be
plated entirely over her outside with 4iin. plates,
but when it was sthsequently determined to increase

the weight of the ship's guns and concentrate them
in a central battery, it then became necessary to
leave certain portions of the ship's side forward and
aft of this battery without armour and materially
increase the thickness of the plating covering this
battery--in other words, to add the weight of pro-
tecting iron taken from forward and aft to the centre
plating. The armament of the ship is thus arranged :
Main deck—ln the central battery, 10 9-inch
muzzle-loading wrought-iron rifled 121-ton guns,
on broadside carriages and slides ; outside of
the central battery four 7-inch muzzle-loading
wrought iron rifled 61 ton guns, on broadside car-
riages and. slides. Upper deck—Four 7-inch guns
as on main deck ; total armament, 18 guns. She
will also carry as boat and field guns two 20-
pounder breach-loading Armstrongs, one 9-pounder
breech-loading Armstrong for boat service ; one 12-
pounder breech-loading Armstrong gun for field
service, and one 6-pounder brass smooth-bore gun
for short practice. The Royal Alfred, like all other
wooden frigates plated with iron, is necessarily weak
throughout her frame, and this was very evident
on Saturday in the vibration of the ship, especially
below, when she was under full steam.
The Brigadier-General commanding the third
brigade of Infantry, at Aldershott, has received
orders to hold the 92d Gordon Highlanders in readi-
ness to proceed to Ireland about the Ist of March.
The first head-quarters' division of the7lst High-
land Light Infantry, under Col. Hope, left Edin-
burgh Castle on Saturday and embarked at Granton,
in the General Steam Navigation Company's steam-
ship Stork, for London en route for Aldershott. The
division consisted of 13 officers and 325 men, with
40 women and 60 children. The second division
will leave on Wednesday. The 71st will be replaced
at Edinburgh by the 72d Highlanders, just arrived
from India, a small detachment of which has already
arrived, and the remainder are expected imme-
diately.
The 75th Regiment, quartered at Gosport, is
under orders to proceed immediately to Ireland.
A party of volunteers from different depots left
the camp at Colchester on Saturday, en route for
Woolwich, to join the Military Store Staff Corps,
now being organised at that station. The 54th
Regiment having embarked for England from Bengal
and the 70th Regiment being about to be recalled
from New Zealand, it is expected that the depots of
these regiments (now attached to the 4th depot bat-
talion) will be ordered from Colchester in the spring.
The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—Sub-Lieut. Frederick G.
Dundas and Sub-Lieut. Henry A. Street to the
Wivern ; Robert L. Groome, midshipman, to the
Gladiator ; Henry B. Warren, midshipman, to the
Favourite; and William T. Wilson, surgeon, to the
Duke of Wellington.

The Habeas Corpus Suspension (Ireland)

Bill.

The following is the text of the bill brought in
by Sir George Grey on Saturday. It is called a Bill
to Empower the Lord Lieutenant or other Chief
GovernOr or Governors of Ireland to apprehend
and detain until the Ist day o‘ September, 1866,
such persons as he or they shall suspect of conspir-
ing against her Majesty's person and Government :
" Whereas a treasonable conspiracy now unfor-
tunately exists in Ireland : Therefore, for the better
preseriation of her Majesty's most sacred person,
and for securing the peace, the laws, and liberties of
this kingdom, be it enacted by the Queen's Most
Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and
by the authority of the same, as follows :
" 1. That all and every person and persons, who
is, are, or shall be within prison within that part of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called Ireland at or on the day on which this act
shall receive her Majesty's royal assent, or after, by
warrant of her Majesty's Most. Honourable Privy
Council of Ireland, signed by six of the said Privy
Council, for high treason or treason-felony or
treasonable practices, or suspicion of high treason
or treason-felony or treasonable practices, or by
warrant signed by the Lord Lieutenant or other
chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time
being, or his or their chief secretary, for such causes
as aforesaid, may be detained in safe custody without
bail or mainprize until the first day of September,
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and that
no judge et austice of the peace shall bail or try any
such person or persons so committed without order
from her said Majesty's Privy Council until the said
first day of September, one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-six, any law or statute to the contrary
notwithstanding.
" 2. In cases where any person or persons have
been before the passing of this act, or shall be dur-
ing the time this act, shall continue in force, arrested,
committed, or detained in custody by force of a
warrant or warrants of her Majesty's Most Hon.
Privy Council of Ireland, signed by six of the said
Privy Council, for high treason or treason-felony
or treasonable practices, or suspicion of high treason
or treason-felony or treasonable practices, or by war-
rant or warrants signed by the Lord Lieutenant or
other chief governor or governors of Ireland for
the time being, or his or their chief secretary, for
such causes as afcresaid, it shall and may be lawful
for any person or persons to whom such warrant or
warrants have been or shall be directed to detain
such person or persons so arrested or committed in
his or their custody in any place whatever within
I Ireland, and that such person or persons to whom
such warrant or warrants have been or shall be
directed shall be deemed and taken to be to all in-
tents and purposes lawfully authorised to detain in
safe custody, and to be the lawful gaolers and keepers
of such persons so arrested, committed, or detained,
and that such place or places where such .persons so
arrested, committed, or detained are or shall be de-
tained in custody shall be deemed and taken to all
intents and purposes to be lawful prisons and gaols
for the detention and safe custody of such person
and persons respectively ; and that it shall and may
be lawful to and for the Lord Lieutenant or other
chief governor or governors of Ireland for the time
being, by warrant signed by him or them, or for the
chief secretary of such Lord Lieutenant or other chief
governor or governors, by warrant signed by such
chief secretary, or for her Majesty's Privy Council
of Ireland, by warrant signed by six of the Privy
Council, from time to time, as occasion shall be, to
change the person or persons by whom and the place
in which such person er persons so arrested, com-
mitted, or detained shall be detained in safe custody.
" 3. Provided always that copies of such warrants
respectively shall be transmitted to the Clerk of the
Crown in and for the county of the city of Dublin,
and shall be filed by him in the public office of the
Pleas of the Crown in the city of Dublin."

Fourteen vessels arrived in one day recently at
Savannah, a circumstance which the papers of that city
consider a striking evidence of returning prosperity.
Northern citizens in Savannah, on account of the social
exclusion under which they are labouring, have organised
a select club, and are giving a series of national assemblies
at Farmers' Hall.

ADVERTISEMENT.). -Avoid medicines: they always aggra-
vate chronic complaints, but Du Barry's Delicious Health-
Restoring nevalenta Arabica Food, which yields three times
the nourishment of the best meat, eaves fifty times its cost
in other remedies, and invariably restores perfect digestion,
strong nerves, sound lungs, healthy liver, pure blood, re-
freshing sleep, functional regularity, and energy to the most
disordered or enfeebled. We extract a few out of 60,000
Cures:—Cure No. 58,216, or the Marchioness de Brehan,
of seven years' liver complaint, wasting away, debility,
nervousness, with a nervous palpitation all over, bad diges-
tion, constant sleeplessness, and the most intolerable nervous
agitation.—Cure No. 1.771. Lora Stuart de Decics. Lord
Lieutenant of Waterford. of many years' dyspepsia.—No.
49,832. "Fifty years' indescribable agony from dyspepsia,
nervousness, asthma, cough, constipation, flatulency,
spasms, sickness, and vomiting.—Maria Jolly."—Cure No.
46,270. Mr. James Roberts, of Frimley, Surrey, of thirty
years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver derange-
ment, and partial deafness.--Cure No. 47,121. Miss Elizabeth
jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestion, gatherings, to s
Spirits, and nervous fancies.—Cure No. 54,816. The Rev. Jas
T. Campbell, Fakenhain, Norfolk, "of indigestion and torpi
dity of the liver, which had restate I all medical treatment.'
in tins, 11b, 2s 9d; 21b, 4s 6.1; 51b, lls ; 121 b, '22s; 241 b,
48s.—Barry Du Barry and Co., No. 77, Regent-street, London;
also Phillips, tea dealers, 8, King Wiliam-street; likewise
at 61, Gracechurch-street ; 4, Cheapside ; 49, Bishopsgate-
street Within ; 63, 150, and 298, Oxford-street ; 330, Strand ;
54, Upper Baker-street; 103, Tottenham-court-road; 96,
Upper-street, Islington, N.; Harvey, Notting-hill; Close
Brothers, 65, High-street ; and Stubbs, Queen's-terrace, St.
John's-wood, London ; and all respectable grocers and che-
mists.—Beware of spurious Imitations.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOITRNALE

4. -
THE " LONDON REVIEW" AS TO WHETHER THE

MINISTRY CAN STAND.—Threatened men, it is said,
live long, but the proverb is one of questionable
authority. What is true of men is true of ministries.

The revised and corrected new edition of the Rus-

sell-Gladstone Administration may possibly find
favour with Parliament and the public, and that
favour may continue for mapysessions. But the

reverse may also happen ; and if it cannot be pre-
dicted with confidence, at least it is certain that

present indications tend that way. For the last
week or so several independent Liberal journals, in-
deed nearly all the leading organs of the party, ex-
cept those which receive their inspiration imme-
diately from official quarters, have expressed them-
selves in such a manner as to show their growing
sense of the insecurity of the Government's position,
and the possibility of its defeat and disruption at
almost any moment. It is not exactly in the changes
which have recently taken place in the composition
of the Cabinet, and the distribution of public offices
that any reason for alarm is seen. It was not too
soon for Sir Charles Wood to consider himself spec-
tatum satin; and it is probable that the Montgo-

merys, and Prinseps, and Eastwicks of the Indian
Council will find Lord de Grey more ready to profit
by the fruits of their experience than his predecessor
was. It is a time also of comparative quiet in India,
and there will be perhaps more safety in the deci-
sions of a multitude of counsellors than in the

overhearing influence of one mastering (not
master) mind. The Liberals see with satisfaction
a career affording many chances of distinction
opened to Mr. Stansfeld ; and if he can contrive to
give less prominence to his affection for the Head
Centre of the proto-Fenians of Italy, and will not
allow himself to be ruffled by impertinent questions
from lively young spirits of the Opposition, touching
the existence of Thugs or the exports of pale ale, there
is no reason why the strong-winged water-fowl of
Fulham should not breast with confidence the swell-
ing tide of the Ganges. The great Parliamentary
power of the house of Devonshire has a sort of right
to be represented in the Cabinet, and Lord Harting-
ton will be even more useful at the War Depart-
ment as Secretary of State than he has been as
Under-Secretary. That haw-haw nonchalance which
Guardsmen consider the perfection of manner is
possessed by his lordship in an eminent degree, and,
combined with the authority of his very high rank
and personal position, will be found most effective,
not only in repressing the explosions of bumptious
colonels in the Commons, but also in resisting and
restraining the encroachments of the Horse Guards.
Lord Hartington is a good man of business, and, if
he can bring the economical talent of the noble
Duke, his father, to bear upon the army estimates,
the country will certainly have reason to feel in-
debted to him. It is not so much, then, the men in
the Government, considered as administrators, that
any one objects to (except the malcontents who
grudge them their places) ; but rather the hazy and
hesitating policy by which their promised measures,
and more especially the Reform Bill, appear to be
characterised. Even in the matter of the Cattle
Plague their councils have been marked by much
indecision, and some of Mr. Lowe's strictures were
not undeserved. No doubt the question of Reform
is a difficult one to deal with. The so-called Libe-
ral party consists of many very different sections of
opinion. The interval is wide indeed between Mr.
Lowe at one end and Mr. Bright at the other. It
must be remembered that it was by " Liberal" votes
Mr. Baines's Borough Franchise Bill was defeated
just before the dissolution of the last Parliament.
It is evident that Reform was made a hustings-cry
at the last election by many men who used it (to
borrow Mr. Gathorne Hardy's elegant simile) as a
costermonger uses the carrot by which he draws
on his donkey. When the majority of 70 or
80, which the electors gave the Liberal party, is
analysed, and the grain separated from the chaff,
the number of sincere and thorough-going Re-
formers will not be found very considerable. The
spirit of Palmerston was still in the ascendant at the
late election, and many honourable members hoped,
no douht, that his mesmeric passes would be found,
for a time at least, as potent as ever. They were
pledged to a " well-devised"—a " well-considered"
—measure of Reform. Just so ; a measure, for in-
stance, that it would take one or two sessions to
" devise," and two or three other sessions to " con-
sider." If by the end of that time some sort of a
bill passed, at any rate they would not have bought
their seats too dear. But Lord Palmerston died,
and Lord Russell took his place. Mr. Bright's
thunder was heard again at Birmingham and Roch-
dale, and his " beloved disciple," Mr. W. E. Fors-
ter, with the breath of the democracy of Bradford
still hot upon him, was made Under-Secretary for
the Colonies. It seemed likely that " extreme"
opinions were going to prevail in the councils of the
Government, and the " moderate" section of the
party took the alarm. Hitherto, however, as far
as the truth has been permitted to appear, Lord Rus-
sell still bids for Mr. Bright's support. The borough
franchise is to be reduced to a £6 standard ; so much
seems certain. But whether this standard is to be
fixed by rating or rental seems still undetermined,
though upon that it depends whether the measure
in this respect is to be a real improvement or a per-
fect delusion. It is perfectly well understood that
the members of the new Parliament in general are
in no hurry to be sent back to their constituents.
Many of them have paid some thousands of pounds
for the privilege of a seat in the House, and the
richest men do not like to be too often called upon
to repeat that process. This introduction of a Re-
form Bill in the very beginning of a new Parliament
—an article, too, really made to " shave" and not
" sell" —is anything but pleasant to them.
Still more ootre uncomfortable is it when Mr. Bouverie
(of course with the most innocent intentions) pro-
tests against a mere lowering of the franchise,
exposes.
with incontrovertible reasoning the glaring
anomalies in the distribution of representatives, and
denounces beforehand as an imposition and a
mistake any Reform Bill that does not address
itself to this important branch of the question.
Members grow more and more uneasy, vote the
whole business a nuisance, and, the question seem-
ing to present the alternative whether they are to
turn out of office a Government in which none of
themselves are likely for a long while to find places,
or magnanimously submit in a short time to the loss
of their seats
i in Parliament, the instinct of self-
preservation s naturally uppermost. It need not
therefore occasion much surprise if the Govern-
ment find themselves one of these days in such a
minority, no matter on what question, as to make
them decline to keep office any longer. If such
an issue is inevitable we must be prepared to re-
sign ourselves to it. It will not be without its
advantages. The leaven of Whig insincerity has
too long and too largely corrupted the lump of
Liberalism, and it is only in opposition that a
wholesome and permanent corrective can be ap-
plied. There are men in the Government whose
earnest desire is to extend the privileges of the
Constitution to the mass of their countrymen,
and to deny to no class or creed the rights due
to them as citizens of the same commonwealth.
There are others who have the names of Reform
and Progress on their lips, but in their hearts the
narrowest oligarchical exclusiveness, and a con-
tempt for the people they have so long duped
and cheated. Let them take in heed in time lest
the donkey, baulked of the carrot, should snap off
the hand that holds it. In opposition the whole
party should take counsel together, purify its
aims, and define its views. Great questions await
and press for solution—questions which ought to
have been and would have been adjusted long
ago, if the men who had made use of them as party
cries, to snatch an advantage from their political
opponents, had not, the thoment that end was
gained, recalled their pledges in indecent haste,
and belied their recent declarations. It is one-
and-thirty years since Sir Robert Peel was turned
out of office on the Appropriation Clause, and
though the party that displaced him has been in
power for the greater part of that time, the ques-
tion of the Irish Establishment has never been
raised by them, except with the evident intention
of marking some theoretical distinction between
themselves and the Tories, which has been found
to have no existence in fact. The same thing is
true, to a great extent, of the Reform question,
and we do not expect to find it settled until the
conviction of that truth sinks deeply and rests im-
movably in the minds of the people.
TlMES.—After a period of peace and progress
extending over no less than 18 years, we are
startled once more from our dream of better times
by another suspension, with every circumstance of
urgency and haste, of the Habeas Corpus Act for
Ireland. It seems hardly possible to believe, when
we look at the tranquillity and contentment which
pervade every part of Great Britain, that in a coun-
try only 60 miles distant from our shores, and which
has almost completed the seventh century of its
connexion with us, it has been found absolutely
necessary by a Government and a Parliament
equally reluctant to suspend one of the most
elementary guarantees for freedom. The debate
which preceded the passing of the bill was
full of curious incidents. The question mainly
relating to Ireland, its discussion might not im-
properly have been left, in the first instance at least,
to the Irish members. But this was not the case.
Mr. Bright had apparently prepared a speech on
the condition of Ireland, and took the opportunity
to deliver it with some slight attempt to connect it
with the subject before the House. Eloquent as it
was, it was entirely inappropriate. Instead of can-
vassing the justice or wisdom of the proposed infrac-
tion of the Constitution, he declaimed loudly against
the ill-treatment of Ireland, and summoned Mr.
Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli to confer on a subject

worthy of the highest statesmanship—a legislative
remedy for Irish evils. How far the causes which
urged the Fenians to conspire against the Govern-
ment can be identified with legislative neglect we
are not informed, for Mr. Bright did not explain
what the real objects of the Fenians are, nor what
are those Irish grievances which it is in the power
of Parliament to redress. Mr. Bright was followed
by Mr. Roebuck, who, with more than usual ani-
mation and ability, sought to prove that Ireland.
had no cause of grievance, because the evils under
which she was alleged to suffer are all participated
in by England, which finds them no evils at all.
After a somewhat similar speech from Mr. Hors-
man, the debate fell, as it ought to have done
much sooner, into the hands of Irish members.
The most remarkable of their speeches was that
of Sir John Gray, one of the companions in
imprisonment of O'Connell, who boldly stated, from
knowledge of the case acquired in legal proceedings
between himself and the Fenian leaders, that the ob-
jects of the conspiracy were twofold—life and pro-
perty. Mr. Gladstone wound up the debate in a
speech of rather inconvenient length, full of his
characteristic merits and defects, interspersing sen-
tences adorned by great felicity of thought and ex-
pression with much that was commonplace and ob-
scure. Though more-than usually brilliant, we
cannot regard this debate as altogether adequate to
the occasion which called it forth. The English
members usurped too large a share of it, and the
Irish members, when it fell into their hands, con-
ducted it with little vigour or originality.