Transcriber's note This text contains punctuation inconsistencies and misspellings which have been retained. A list of unresolved printer's errors can be found at the end of the book. THE SPEECHES (IN FULL) OF RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M. P., AND WILLIAM O'BRIEN, M. P., ON HOME RULE, DELIVERED IN PARLIAMENT, FEB. 16 AND 17, 1888. NEW YORK: AMERICAN NEWS CO. MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH. MR. GLADSTONE. In following the right honorable gentleman, I shall only touch those portions of his speech which go the heart of the question. In my opinion, they constituted a very small part of his address (_cheers_), the rest being criminatory and incriminatory matter, which, however amusing to a portion of the House, really assists us very little in getting at the root of the great question before us. I do this particularly because there is a great difficulty, owing to the enormous range of the question, in confining the debate within the narrow limits to which we all desire to confine it. My honorable and learned friend, the member for Inverness (Mr. Finlay), last night, when no member of the Government seemed in a condition to follow the speech of the honorable member for Northeast Cork (Mr. W. O'Brien), (_Opposition cheers_), gallantly stepped into the breach, and performed that office on behalf of ministers, which has so often been performed by those who are sometimes termed "Dissenting Liberals"; namely, that of finding expedients of defence for the Government which they and their adherents behind them have been unable to discover. (_Opposition cheers._) My honorable and learned friend said he thought it high time that the debate should draw to a close. I can perfectly understand reasons why he should desire that there might be no debate at all on this subject (_laughter and cheers_), but when he says that the discussion has extended to unreasonable length, I point to the speech of the Attorney-General last night, of the length of which I am far from complaining, but which was evidently in sharp contradiction with the view of my honorable and learned friend.