is as a whipping-post, what the
Irish peasant is as a lazybones, what Harcourt is as a humbug, what
the member for Kilanyplace is as a blackguard, so is the _Freeman's
Journal_ as a liar. When quoting great masters examples of their work
are always interesting.

The late Chamberlain-Dillon episode is fresh in the minds of all
newspaper readers. Dillon wanted the date. The date was given him. He
promised to answer the charge, but anybody can see that no answer was
possible. He failed to come up to time. Being lugged to the front by
the scurf of the neck, he explained that he _had_ used the words,
namely, that when the Irish party got power they would remember their
enemies, but--much virtue in But--he used the words under the
influence of exasperation arising from the Mitchelstown affair--which
took place a year later!

Mr. Chamberlain pointed this out, and referring to this incident the
_Freeman_ says:--

"Mr. Chamberlain literally grew pale under the succession of
exposures, and wriggled in his seat, while he attempted to meet them,
now by wriggling equivocations, now by reckless denial." "Mr. Goschen,
prompted by Mr. Bolton," horrified the _Freeman's_ delicate taste by
"jocose allusions to watertight compartments and to the vessel's
toppling over, which grated horribly on the members of the House, with
the memory of the recent terrible calamity fresh in their minds." I
was in Dublin when the news of the Victoria disaster arrived, and I
heard a typical Nationalist express a wish that the whole fleet had
perished. Such sentiments are the natural result of the lying
literature provided by the "patriot" press of Dublin and the
provinces. Well may Home Rule opinion in Ireland be rotten through and
through! Mirabeau said of a very fat man that his only use was to show
how far the skin would stretch without bursting. The _Freeman_ exists
to show to what lengths human fatuity can go. Lying and slander and
all uncleanness, envy and hatred and malice and all uncharitableness,
are its daily bread. With Home Rule in Ireland, this sheet would be
the ruling power. To support Home Rule is for the _Freeman_ to breathe
its native air. Under an Irish Parliament, nutriment "thick and slab"
would abound, and the patriot print would wax in strength and stature
day by day. Enlighten the popular mind, and the _Freeman's_ hours are
numbered. It would vanish as a dream, forgotten by all except some
old diver into the history of the past,