The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-10-12

Igacsous minister to come into conflict
with the United States overia matter quite
Iunimportant as compared with the main
tenance of the friendly relations of the
two governments and nations Besides
! this, he has a way of escape with dig
| nifty. 4s3
The reassembling of parliament is
again postponed by royal decree. The
| date fixed is Dec. 23, but It is well under
stood that this'isa ministerial fiction.
| There will be at least two other post
| ponements, and parliament will not sit
| much, ii at all, before February At this
stage everything points not only to one,
but two sessions, devoted chiefly to Ire
land. The Times, which IS apt to get in
side Information, says .tthe land ques-
tion VIII be;settled in 1885, and that this
Will be followed by Irish local govern
| ment measure in 1897 to provide prob
| ablyfor the creation of a central council in
Dublin. Several remarkable proofs thatthe
| unlonists are preparing to- 'conciliate"
Ireland are supplied by recent events.
Lord Salisbury has promised the lead
ing Irish unionists that, if the business
OF the session will permit, he will visit
Dublin and make a tour Of The south OF
| Ireland in July next. This tour is ohyi-
opsly in line with the expected concilia-
| tory policy. Another token OF the same
olive branch quality is the scheme 0evel-
! oped by Horace Curzon Plunkett for the
| esIa blishment of an Irish board Of agri-
culture. This is certain to lead to the
| formation of other special Irish depart
ments If it is adopted. That it will be
| may be assumed from the fact that Mr..
Plun]lett is now recognized as the adviser
OF Gerald Balfour, the chief secretary of
/! Ireland. He accompanied the latter on
his recent tour of Ireland
/ One thing is clear-there is to be 10
coercion. The liberal organs admit this,
| pointing out that the unionists have stol
en- the plans Of their liberal opponents.
On the other hand the proposals made
| by Tom Templetown. the president OF the
| Irish Unionists' Club council, by way Of
suggestion of an Irish policy for the gov
| ernment are designed to strike at the
Irish vote. He proposes in effect to abol
ish the illiterate vote. At the general
election of 1892 more than one-fifth of the
total vote of Ireland was illiterate; nor
was it likely that the percentage was
much lower at the recent elections. AS a
result Irish politics are largely machine
made, and the clerical influence plays too
large part. 1t is obvious, however, that
if such a suggestion were to be adopted,
future generations of Irish1nen would be
disfranchised, unless along with the abol-
ition of the illiterate vote, there went an
impetus to the Improvement of elament-
ary education in Ireland
There is another picture of Temple
towns proposal which seems fair enough,
at least until some decent approximation
is had to the ideal of one man, one vote.
He urges reduction in the representa-
ton of ireland. This is now scandalous-
ly in excess of the due proportion Of the
Irish population. But the practical eff
feet OF a reduction would be worse proba-
bly, than that of the continuance of the
present conditions. The uniOnists could
not make the change without laying
themselves open to the charge of trying
to gerrymander the act of union. More
than this constitutional danger of such
ma gnitude would have tc be followed by
an Immediate dissolution in order that
the country might express an opinion on
it. Then the whole Templetown schemes
is for the time in the nubibus
The dispatches from Constantinople in
dicate terribly serious condition OF at
fairs and the public mind here is much
exercised. The Intervention of the powers
is checked for the moment. There are
indications that the riots were planned
by leaders of the Huntchagist revolution
airy party-an Armenian organization with
center at Athens. The Huntchagist
bands have always done the Armenian
cause injury by their savage conduct,
and now seem to have inf icted the worst
blow Of all. The peaceable Armenians
have good reason to long to be delivered
from feauds of this sort.
This particular outbreak would not
have assumed it's bloody proportions had
the original plans of the Armenian pa
triarch been carried out. There is little
doubt that the demonstration at the pal
ace of the sultan on Monday was calcu-
lated to alarm the Turkish police; but the
object of it was lawful enough and what
the deputation attempted to do was to
presnt petition to the grand vizier pray
ling for reform. A great crowd gathered
and the Huntchagists took advantage OF
the opportunity to raise a riot, and in the
collision that ensued the unarmed Arme-
mans got the worst of IS.
The important featureaof the massacre
apart from the question of its inhuman-
ity--is the loophole it gives the sultan's
advisers. They are now in position to
insist that there are two sides to the Ar
menian question, and that much Of what
seems to be Turkish cruelty is but@a legltl-
mate attempt to maintain order This
scrt Of talk is as false as it is cheap. But
the sultan will use it to the powers. AT
me1ia is for the time the victim OF a
blunder OF fanatics Of her own faith.
The eastern question is again to the fore
in political clubs and circles, but the pre-
Yailing opinion is that the prospect OF
war between Japan and Russia is less
than. it was month ago.
Mr.. Kato, the accomplished Japanese
minister to Great Britain, is authority for
the statement that the real cause for the
DELAY Of the mikado in evacuating the
I.iao3 Tong peninsula is not a fear that
Russia will occupy it, but the tardiness
Of the first of the payments stipulated by
the treaty Of Shimonoseki
If the first payments made Japan will
probably take it for granted that the
others will follow. Mr.. Kato has no fear
thnt Russia will take an unwarraatable
altitude in this particular, especially in
the face Of European sentiment on the
subject. Japan will leave Port Arthur
because Of the representations by Europe
that her perseYering in the occupation
Of ii would harm eastern trade.
Russia was the first to urge this con-
stderation. For her to occupy the place
on Japan's " fthdraWal would be incon-
ceivably too graVesto be tolerated by Eu-
rome, and by England especially The
same rEuments which has been applied,to
Japan would apply & Russian preten-