5
that alone, do I guide my policy. The interests of Russia in India require as great, or even greater consideration than our own. (Loud cheers.) India is a trust placed in our hands by Divine Providence to have and to hold till she can walk alone, and if she now thinks she can walk alone, and my friend, Lord Ripon—(loud cheers)—has done all in his power to induce her to try, or if she prefers the guidance of Holy Russia to our own, she is perfectly at liberty to do so. (Loud cheers and shouts of "Perish India.") It is true that this advance of Russia to Merv and Herat has caused a great ferment in India, and that your gallant fellow-countryman, Sir Donald Stewart, has applied for 15,000 English troops to enable him to increase largely the army of native troops; but he entirely misunderstands the situation. Be of good cheer. You need not be under the least alarm that I shall grant his request. (Cheers.) Four years ago I assured you that the
CONDITION OF IRELAND WAS SATISFACTORY,
and that it was only Tory malignity and inefficiency that made the Arms Bill necessary. I therefore abolished the Arms Bill; and I feel satisfied everything would have gone according to my wishes if Mr. Parnell had not allowed his impatience to prompt him to be beforehand with me in advocating the confiscation of the property of the Tory landlords. That, of course, was a card I could not allow him to play; you remember how I denounced him at Leeds as steeped in treason to the very lips; how he was imprisoned in Kilmainham without trial; how I made that famous treaty with him and his associates—(loud cheers)—that spread such consternation in the Tory camp. You know how again my hand was forced by these horrible murders in Phoenix Park. Since then I have been obliged to trust to a considerable degree to that admirable resource of civilisation, the hangman's rope; certainly it has done good service; and if occasionally it has got round the wrong neck it is only what happened under a Tory Government during the Indian Mutiny when three Tantia Topees were hanged before they got hold of the right one. (Loud laughter.) In consequence of the just and popular administration of my friend, Lord Spencer, and of the severe measures of repression, the most severe ever known in Ireland, that I have placed in his hands, Ireland is again loyal and peaceful. The "voice of the turtle is again heard in the land," and contentment and prosperity whistle in the streets. (Loud cheers.) The extraordinary success that has attended
OUR POLICY IN EGYPT
is the wonder and admiration of the world, and but for the pardonable jealousies of some of our neighbours, and the unpardonable criticisms of the Opposition, our success would have been greater still. The judicious letting of blood at Alexandria, Tel-el-Keber, in the Soudan, and on the shores of the Red Sea, appears to have been attended with wonderful results. (Cheers.) I am assured by Sir Evelyn Baring that since he went to Egypt the advance of the fellaheen in material prosperity has been simply marvellous. The Egyptian war—but I forget, I have already dis-
