The San Francisco call., 1895-07-15
A BLOW TO THE PARTY.
One Factor That Aided in the
Tory's Overwhelming
Victory.
IRISH VOTERS SUSPICIOUS.
Made to Believe That the English
Home-Rulers Are Traitors
to Their Cause.

LONDON, ENG, July IA. - The worst
of all the misfortunes that have over
taken the Liberals and homeruIers
in this campaign, OF, in fact, since the
retirement of Mr.. Gladstone, has been
the disclosures made by Timothy M.
Healy concerning the relations of the Lib
eral whips with the anti-Parnellite leaders.
Every Liberal and every McCarthyite de-
plores these revelations, and the feeling is
widespread that all of the power which the
priesthood usually exerts over the Irish
electors, or all of the power which they are
capable of exerting, will fall very far short
of counteracting the baneful influence of
Mr.. Healy's disclosures. At the conven-
ton of the Irish National party, held at
Omagh, short distance from London
derry, this week, Mr.. Healy related how
Thomas E. Ellis, the principal Liberal
whip, through the Hon. Edward Blake,
formerly Premier of Ontario, Dominion of
Canada, bargained with the anti-Parnell-
ties for four Irish seats, giving 62O0 year
for each seat, on the condition that they
should be regarded as Liberal and not
Irish Nationalist seats.
This transaction, assuming that it actu-
ally occurred-and there is no doubt that
it did-was not at all out of the ordinary
line of Irish party dealings. Indeed, the
practice is common With all of the factions.
The money of both the Unionists and the
Liberals was wanted to assist in defraying
the expenses of the registration of electors
and otherwise securing the Irish seats, and
neither Mr.. Ellis nor the anti Parnellite
Loo nanci1orad ha
plying the sale of the home-rule vote. If
such a question had been involved there
certainly would have been no bargain, as
neither party would have entertained such
proposition for moment.
But Mr.. Healy, knowing this full well,
knew also how TO distort that matter in the
eyes of the public so as to inflict terrible
blow to the National cause to crafty his
hatred toward his personal opponents in
the Irish parliamentary party. The bick-
erings between members of the Irish party
have been prevalent coeval with the party's
existence, but it has remained for Mr..
Healy to depart from the custom of fight
ing out personal feuds, man to man, and
to use the party which made him as a
weapon in losing scrimmage.
No explanation was given by Mr.. Healy
of the manner in which the whips, who are
the custodians of the party funds, are ac-
customed to distribute the money; nor can
any explanation that might be made now
dissolve the public suspicion that elector-
ates are commonly bought and sold, the
same as potatoes or any other commodity.
Mr.. Healy's stab has reached the public
heart, and Unionist organs are jubilant
over the incident. They revel in the in
diligence in disingenuous ranting over the
Outrageous practice of trafficking in
seats" and demand the immediate dismis-
sal OF Mr.. Ellis from his official position.
Although Mr.. Ellis disclaims any connec-
ton with any contract with the anti Par
nellites, and notwithstanding the fact
every man whom Mr.. Healy has sought to
befoul has been able to show clean
hands in the affair, the incident had the
effect to throw several seats to the
Parnellites and paralyze the Irish vote in
the great industrial centers in Great
Britain, where that vote is expected to turn
the balance of power. The Irish voters in
these centers have already become sus-
picious of the English home-rulers, and
are now in the last stages of disaffection
over this episode in the prolonged warfare
within the Irish party, which threatens
finally to shatter the Nationalists into mu-
tually destructive factions.