The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-12
What Mr.. Redmond Might fell Us

We hopc Ohups uutihS ihis oohN ~. Ashb-
MoND's %sojourn in this country, he may be
prevailed upon to throw light in a public
speech on several contemporary questions
of vital moment to Ireland. He is rccog-
nized on both sides of the Atlantic as be-
ing, with the possible exception of Mr..
SEXTON, the most effective orator in the
Irish Nationalist party, and there is no
man more thoroughly informed concerning
the present and prospective condition of
Irish politics. He can give us, for in
stance, some. authentic data touching the
outlook for home rule, a subject In which
Americans will never cease to be inter
ested, until Irishmen themselves shall come
to regard it with indifference. There are,
also, some subsidiary inquiries which he
is particularly qualified to answer.
What is the precise significance of the
disposition recently evinced by the caucus
of the British Liberal associations to re-
move the home rule plank from the pri-
mary place which hitherto it has occupied
in their party platform? Does itmean that,
at by-elections and ut the next general
election, Liberal speakers will confine
themselves to the discussion of other mat
tiers, and allow their hearers to infer that
home rule has been strangled in the house
of it's ostensible friendsa 1t may be that
Lord RosEBERY would welcome such a
plan of campaign, but is it possible that
Mr.. JOHN MORLEY would consent thus
to be stultified9 Then, again, is not Mr..
GLADSTONE to be rcckoned WITH, so long as
he remains alive2 Assuming, however,
that for the present the Liberals are
AotarmtpaI fp ranprnra thn alvnracv nf "a
separate Parliament for Ireland, we should
like to learn from Mr.. REDMOND whether.
in his Judgment, such q decision sounds
the deathknell of home rule. At the very
worst, can it do more than thrust the
Liberal party back to the position which it
occupied at the general election of 1885,
when, it will be remembered, Mr.. GLAD
STONE had not yet announced his conversion
to the home rule faith, and when the Irish
voters in Great Britain, in compliance with
Mr.. PARNELL's request, supported the Con.
sentative candidates. Will not the Lib
erals always be ready to reassert their de-
votion to home rule. whenever the outcome
of a general election shall prove that they
can recover power by such a declaration,
and in no other way2
Is it even certain that, in similar circum-
stances, the Conservatives, themselves,
might not consider that, as Paris was worth
n mass, so it might be better to grant
Ireland home rule than to deprive Great
Britain of the blessings of Tory Govern
ment2 1t was VIGOROUSLY with Parnellite
help that the Tories threw out Mr.. Glad
STONE in the spring of 1885, and Mr.. RED
MoND is able to inform us, whether it is
true or false that members of the resultant
Tory Cabinet, namely, Lord CARNARvoN
and Lord RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, were in
clined to make large concessions to the
home rule idea. OF course, should the
Unionists again secure, in the next Parlia-
ment, a large and compact majority over
all other parties and factions combined, we
should expect to see them remain infeXi-
BILE and unapproachable on the subject Of n
separate Parliament for Ireland. Can we
look forward reasonably, however, to their
repeating in 1900 or 1901 the extraordina,
~ triumph at the ballot box which they
achieved in 1895? To this question Mr..
REDMOND is more competent to reply than
any other man on thiss side of the Atlantic,
because he not only knows every Irish con.
stituency from top to bottom, but Is ac-
quainted with the inner workings of both
of the British political parties. Does he
think that the Dissidcnt Liberals, by their
acceptance of seats in the Salisbury Cabinet,
AVE been transformed so thoroughly in
the public mind into Conservatives that
the next electoral contest is likely to be
fought out on the traditional lines, the
genuine Liberals, on the one side, being
opposed to virtually unified Conservatives
on the other? In that event, Is it not
probable that neither of the great British
parties would exhibit Il phenomenal pre-
ponderance, but that. on the contrary, they
would be divided so evenly as once more to
give the Irish Nationalists the balance of
power? The American friends of Ireland
would like an authoritative opinion on this
question, and Mr.. JOHN f. REDMOND can
furnish it.
or course, when we speak of the Irish
Nationalists regaining the balance of
power, we take for granted that they can
be reunited, and can recover nearly, if not
all, of the eighty-siX seats which they con-
trolled in the Parliaments respectively
elected in 1885 and, six months afterward,
in y Who, better than Mr.. REDMOND,
can say whether this assumption Is well
founded7 Undoubtedly, the thrusting of
home rule into the background by the
Liberal caucus has rendered it impossible
for those ant~i-Parnellitcs, who accept Mr..
JOHN DILLON for their leader, to continue
to act as the docile auxiliarics of the
Liberal party. To that fact Mr.. Dill
Ions speech at Dublin bears %unequiv-
ocal witnessl Docs it follow that n
workable plan of cooperation between
the Parnellites and anti.Parnellites can be
devised, and, if it could, would Mr.. T.
HEALY and his adhercnts assent to itl AS
a matter of detail, how many seats were
lost at the last general election through the
division of Nationalist votes between anti
Parnellite and Parnellite candidates. Is it
not possible at least to arrange a modus
riUendi, In pursuance of which only one
Nationalist candidate shall run in a doubt
full district, with a view to recovering The
| seats Loaf in 1857 II. for any reason. Mr..