The San Francisco call., 1898-08-14
ASPIRANTS IN THE FIELD
SIR ROBERT SEXTON TO RUN AS
 A UNIONIST.
An Englishman Who Seeks to Win Votes by Pretending Sympa- : thy With Nationalist
 Aims and Objects.
BY J. J. CLANCY.

DUBLIN. July 30.-Dublin is getting reused on the question of the mayoralty for next year. Since the freedom of the city was refused to Charles Stew an. Parneu in 1882 by the casting vote of Lord Mayor Movers. no Tory or Un- ionist has been allowed 10 sit in the civic chair of the Irish capital Not that any objection would be felt by the Nationalist majority 10 seeing Tories or Unionists occupying that position occasionally. if anti-hone rule capital were not to be made of the circum- stance. But the moment a Unionist Lord Mayor got into the Mansion House every one knows that the first thing he would do would be to invite the lord lieutenant to a banquet and have ''loyaHst" speeches delivered as Of old; and knowing all that and knowing moreover, that such incidents would at once be interpreted in England as a sign that the Irish people were aban- doning Ille home rule cause, the ma jority of the Nationalists are deter mined that The first Lord Mayor elected : for Dublin in the extended Franchise for. though actually chosen by the cor poraticn,. he will virtually be elected at the municipal polls-shall not be a E-nionist. Sir Robert Sexton, however, an Englishman who has been settled flor a leng time in Dublin as mer- chant tailor and has been for many years one of the leaders Of the Cn- ionist party iu the Irish capital has had the courage 10 come forward aS . Cnionist candidate for the n1ayoralty,
 h ginning to rage Q pretty fierce battle. which. no doubt, will continue To be fought with increasing spirit-bUC not, ir is to be hoped. with increasing bit terness-till January next, when the issue will be decided by the new cleo torate.
 Of course. Sir Robert Sexton could not hope for success if he had to rely for il on his own party alone. Per sonaIy, he IS an insignihcant. though highly respectable, little man without much brains, while. politically, he be- longs to a section which counts only ten or eleven out Of the sixty members of the present corporation, and which may possibly not have even half that number in the reformed corporation But he has been put forward by q mi nority of the Nationalist members and it is those members and their sup .porters with whom the Nationalist majority are really fighting. The leader of this section is Alderman Pile, the present High Sheriff of Dublin; he is not only it's leader, but almost it's sole brains carrier. He is a Parnellite home ruler but he has always, it is said, fiirted a good deal with the Unionists, and he is now throwing himself heart ard soul into the present contest. The . division in the Nationalist ranks in the corporation is not new. It has existed for some years and has been agra vated a good deal by personal quarrels over other matters altogether; and, II the whole truth were told, l fancy that it would be seen that the proposal to elect a Tory Lord Mayor for next year is but the latest development of what may be called the Pileite movement ot the last half dozen years. To my thinking, that proposal was not very skillful device. for it has led to the issue being narrowed down to the question whether Dublin is to have Tory or Nationalist for Lord Mayor next year. and to that question there car hardly be a doubt as to the reply which will be given So clear is SiI Robert Sexton himself as to the over vhaIming strength of Nationalism iT this city that he is actually pretending to have himself sympathy with Ma tionalist aims and objects. The last thing he has done is to express regre' that he missed being in time to vote al the last meeting of the corporation fol 9 grant of site for the monument t Wolfe Tone But it is doubtful if h. has done himself any good whatever by this device to catch Nationalist votes Many in his own party are anything but pleased with it.
 An obscure local body in the Countl of Westmeath has this week lifted it self into such prominence that it ha! been the talk of the three kingdoms l has come about in this way: 4 weel or two since John P. Hayden, NJ. P. fo. South Roscommon, made g speech II the House of Commons on the question of the exclusion of the clergy Of all de nominations from the nav local b0die to be created under the local govern rlent bill. Mir. Hayden, though a Cath olic himself and 9 brother of tive priests (both in the United States) spoke strongly and boldly in favor o the exclusion. MT Hayden, though th representative Of the County Of Ros common, lives in Mullingar, the count! town of the adjoining county of West meath. where he owns newspaper Immediately after he had spoken il