Excerpt from The Irish Question, With Special Reference to Home Rule in Canada: Speeches by the Hon. Edward Blake, M. P., Mr. E. J. C. Morton, and Mr. Robert W. Hamilton, at the Criterion, on Thursday, August 4th, 1892 We have to regret the defeat of.some of our ablest and most energetic candidates, but those champions, though wounded in the fray, are not discouraged, and will be ready to fight when the opportunity occurs again. It is so clearly the duty of a Chairman to leave ample room for the guest of the evening, that I will resist the temptation to discuss the incidents of the late election, and will not even dwell upon those forces which have told so heavily against some of our unsuccessful candidates, forces which I may call liquid arguments, addressed not to the ears but to the throats of the lower strata among the electors. (laughter.) Upon that subject we are promised some interesting revelations presently. All that I shall now do is to make two remarks - one bearing upon the past, the other upon the future. What has been the nature of the judgment just delivered by the country? It has been a judgment pronounced upon the greatest of our political issues - upon an issue which has been before the country for Six years, and which has been, so to speak, driven and hammered into the midst of the country as very few political issues ever have been. Upon that issue the country has pronounced its judgment. It has pronounced a judgment not merely against a vote-catching and time-serving Government (hear, hear), a Government which has sought to combine Tory men with pseudo-liberal measures, but a judgment in favour of the policy of reconciliation with Ireland and of the statesman who has identified himself with that policy, (cheers), and who has advocated it with a fertility of resource, a tenacity of purpose, and unswerving earnestness and energy Of moral conviction which very few causes have ever enjoyed and which no other living man could have displayed. (cheers) About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.