§ MR. STACPOOLEsaid, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, When he proposes to introduce the Irish Reform Bill?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERThere is, Sir, no subject which has caused the Government more anxiety than the Reform Bill for Ireland. I can say this for the Government collectively, and I can say it for myself and for my noble Friend the Chief Secretary for Ireland, that we have at all times been anxious to deal with that question in a spirit of the utmost confidence, and we have prepared the details of the measure entirely in that spirit. But it is impossible to conceal from ourselves that the circumstances of the time are exceedingly unpropitious. There is no doubt that owing to a foreign and external agency acting upon sentiments of a morbid character in a portion of the population, there is in Ireland at the present moment a very general feeling of distrust, and—I cannot conceal it from tnvself—a considerable sense of danger. It is very difficult to deal with questions involving the re-distribution of electoral rights among a people under circumstances of that description, although I am glad to think that whatever discontent or distrust may exist in Ireland, does not arise from the present state of their electoral privileges. Under these circumstances we feel that it is not possible for us to deal with the question of Parliamentary Reform in Ireland in the spirit in which we could have wished to deal with it, and therefore it is the determination of Her Majesty's Government to postpone until a more favourable opportunity any legislation on this question.