Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
rpY cARLE 10 TIE p1sPArcH.l


LONDON, April 6.-[Copyright. 1.-The
Tory split at Birmingham has been patched
up, but so clumsily that the ragged seams
may be seen of all men. Never since the
Tory-Un nionist alliance was established,
over two years ago, have the Tories been
subjected to such humilisrions as have been
heaped upon them this week. They were
entitled, by the rules of arithmetic and by
formal although unwritten, agreement, to
the reversion of John Bright's seat. They
believed themselves strong enough to win 1t
in a fair fight with the Gladstonians, with
or without the aid of the Unionists, and
Joseph Chamberlain was understood to have
their claims, but when the time for action
came and they announced that they were
going to run Randolph Churchill, that set
tied the matter.
HE BROOKS NO RIVAL.
Chamberlain claims to be the lord of Bir-
mingham and will brook no rival near his
throne. By his orders, John Albert Bright
was put forward as the Unionist candidate,
and the Government was informed that its
choice lay between the surrender of Bir-
mingham by the Tories or the disruption of
the Unionist alliance. Churchill was bull
lied and badgered into refusing Birming-
hams invitation, and after a week of worry
fed into the country to be out of the way of
the contending factions. The local Tories,
less amenable TO official pressure, swore by
all their gods that they would not be CO.
creed, and finally the mutiny became SO
serious that the Government had recourse to
the desperate measure of sending to Bir-
mingham Balfour, the master of coercion.
Balfour addressed the Tory council last
night, and in terms of passionate entreaty
adjured them, if they did not wish to ruin
the Empire, to accept the UnionIst candi-
date. The meeting was of the stormiest
character, and Chamberlain's name was re-
ceived with derisive howls, and for q while
even Balfour, the darling OF the Tory party,
was unable to obtain a hearing, but in the
end Balfour prevailed. and by a small ma
jOrity the meeting grudgingly agreed not to
run a conservative candidate.
POSITIVE PROOF OF JEALOUSY.
1t is necessary to refer to this local souab-
bic at some length, because it affords proof
of what has long been suspected, that the
heart-burnings and personal jealousies
usually attendant upon coalitions exist in
dangerous force within the Tory-Unionist
inner circle, and that all the elements for a
big explosion are ready to hand. When q
Tory rubs against Joseph Chamberlain
there is always dangerous friction, and the
next time it is not improbable that the
sparks will catch big heap of combusti-
bles, and there will be a pyrotechnic dis
play gladdening the eyes of the friends of
Ireland.
Nothing would have pleased better the
Grand Old Man than to have had a three
cornered fight on Central Birmingham. He
has maintained, in and out of season, that
the Unionist force is composed almost en-
tirely of officers, and he believes a straight
forward battle, in which the Liberals,
Tories and Unionists had each their own
candidate, would have proved incontesta-
bly, that there is'no Unionist rank and file.
There certainly is not in Central Birming-
ham, and the knowledge of that fact is one
of the chief reasons for the bitter anguish
and humiliation of the local Tories.