The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-25
THE NORTH DOWN ELECTION
CLANCY TELLS OF THE IN
TERESTING RESULT.
Painful Picture of Life in the West
of Ireland Furnished by
an Inspector of
Schools.

Special Correspondence of The Call.


DUBLIN, Sept. 1O.-The North Down
election about which l wrote in my last
letter has resulted in the return to Par
lament of Mr.. Blakiston- Houston, the
landlord and Ministerialist candidate;
but the majority of the victor was
rather inconsiderable On poll of
something between 1000 and 5000 votes
the one candidate topped the other by
$50. From the point of view Of the
Catholic and Nationalist majority of
Ireland it did not really matter which
of the two candidates was elected. Both
professed the same political principles,
which We're directly antagonistic on
every point to those of that majority.
Nevertheless, the Catholic and Nation
alists in North Down, who number 500
on the electoral roll, are said to have
voted TO a man in favor of the success
full candidate. They probably did so
because Blakiston- Houston was local
man, while Corbett, the defeated can
didate, was a London Scotchman, if l
may use such an expression, and there
fore looked at least like an unscrupu
lous person whose main object was TO
get a seat in Parliament anyhow. But
the real moral of this election is that
the landlord party in the Orange part
of Ulster have more influence left with
the mass of the people than might have
been expected. A very considerable
proportion of farmers whose views on
the subject of land legislation have al
ways been fiercely combated by the
landlords must, on this occasion, have
voted for the landlords candidate. How
this came about | profess myself utter
ly unable to account. 1t only remains
TO add that the new member for North
Down is not one to set the Thames on
fire. He is like almost all the other
Irish landlord representatives in the
House of Commensurate is to say,
more or less OF a "deadhead." This is
a term, l think, which has been bor-
rowed here from the expressive yocab-
ulary of America; but if l am wrong in
that supposition, L may mention that
the word "deaihead" means with us
Irish a person Intellectually incompe-
tent and incapable.
l observe that Mr.. Chamberlain in
the interview hich he is just reported
to have given to a New York journal
ist has tried-at least according TO
more merited report which l have just
seen-to convey to the American peo-
pie the impression that the passing OF
the local government act has at last
solved the Irish difficulty which has
stared England in the face during the
last seven hundred years. If he has
attempted anything of the kind 1t is
simply foolish on his part, because as
sure as the sun is in the sky at noon
events will happen in due course which
will smash his theory to atoms. The
local government act transfers existing
powers of administration IN local af-
fairs from the minority to the majority,
but ii is only the power Of admlniStra-
ton and not the power to make laws
which has been effected and what the
Irish people want is power to do both
the one thing and the other, and 1t
may be safely affirmed that the mass
of them will never be satisfied with
anything less. Mr.. Chamberlain, l may
add, knows all this as we'll as anybods
else in the world. What prevented him
from becoming a Home Ruler in 1885
and 1886 l do not know, but he was
actually more of q Home Ruler than
Gladstone himself when Gladstone's
conversion took place in the autumn
of 1885, and some OF his descriptions of
the present system of governing Ire
land which he had given in the earlier
part of that year have since been
among the connOmplaceS of Irish Ma
tionalist oratory. [ have said that /
do not know what transformed Mr.
Chamberlain from being an advocate
of home rule into being it's most bitter
opponent; but in Ireland at least it is
believed that an incident which took
place in the early summer of 1885 had
something to do with that notable
change. He was then friend and COL
league in the Government of Sir Charles
Dixie, the Republican Baronet," as
he was called, and the two politicians
who were then the rising hopes" of
the English Radical party proposed to
pay a political visit to Ireland. 1t was
necessary, of course, for them to secure
in advance either the favor or the
neutrality of the Irish National party,
and the story is that they applied for
either the one or the other to one OF
two of the Nationalist leaders and that
they got a decided rebuff. Thereupon
the intended visit was abandoned and
soon afterward Mr.. Chamberlain de-
veloped into a. first-class anti-home
ruler. He is, it appears, still posing in
that capacity.
A painful picture of life in the west
of Ireland is furnished by the annual