The San Francisco call., 1898-04-05

though the Irish landlord system had
 been infamously bad, the Irish people
 did not desire to keep up war against
 the present Irish landlords, and woulo, therefore, make no objection to that
 relief being given. MT. Davitt could not stand all this, and toward the close of the debate "let himself go.' He de- scribed Mr. Redmond as the friend and
 ally of the Irish landlords, and said that
 he ought to sit among them, while he
 declared that he himself would fight to
 the bitter end against any pecunlary
 advantage being given to that class In connection with measure of Irish county government reform. It was
 long since any such attack had been
 made upon one Irish Nationalist mem
 Der by another, but MT. Redmond mere
 ly smiled at 1t, and his friends had no
 need to defend him, for, when MT.
 Davitt sat down up jumped Tim Healy
 to make answer in his own caustic style and amid general laughter.
 What would have followed if the de-
 bate had lasted much longer it is difti-
 cult to say, for MT. Redmond had one
 or two of his friends at hand who much
 desired to say something. AS it Was
 the hour for closing the debate for the
 night had come, and there was an end of the incident.
 Another passage of the debate which attracted much notice was the differ ence of view developed between the two opponents of Irish Unionist opin- ion. Colonel Saunderson represents the landlord section of the Irish Unionlsts, being himself a prominent Irish land lord; Mr. Rentoul, on the other hand. who is an Irishman practicing at the English bar, may be said to represent the Presbyterians of Ulster who, gener- ally speaking, are not landlords. put tenants Hitherto, those two sections have haap I1Ditad in OnnOSitiOn to home rule and their champions in Parliament have used much the same arguments on that subject. But on Monday night a rather startling difference of opinion showed itself between them on vital point. One of the main arguments used by both in the past against giving national selfg government to ireland was that it would be used outside Ul- ster to prosecute and oppress the loyal minority While Colonel Saunderson apparently holds this view still, MT. Rentoul took the occasion presented by this debate to renounce it. He con- tended that the minority were in no danger whatever, and that all the talk about the Catholic majority being their natural enemies" was all bosh. l saw some UnionistS seated round about the London Irish lawyer frankly stare at this announcement coming from such source, and certainly Colonel Saunder- son, MT. Carson and some other lrlsh Unionists laughed outright. But every one felt all the same that the heavy going member for Dover had said thing that was important and that would not be forgotten In the future. Nor will it be, for it is an acknowledg- ment coming from an authoritative quarter which simply knocks the bot tom out of the case against home rule
 After MT. T. M. Healy had said his say the debate on the second reading of the Irish local government bill came to close. It was, on the whole, the dullest Irish debate on an important subject I have heard during the last twelve or thirteen years; but the req son for that circumstance I have al- ready explained The inevitable had come, and every one felt, that there was no use in resisting the decree of fate, and, therefore, everything was quiet. It was, in fact, more like scotch fight in the House of Commons than an Irish one. On a Scotch night twenty or thirty Scotch members have every thing their own way. Those gentlemen on such an occasion have the chamber all to themselves. and to an outsider 1t is little wonder that they should be allowed such monopoly. They talk on subjects that nobody else under stands, and talk of them, into the bar gain, in a tone so uneXciting and in ac- cents so strange and unintelligible that only their own countrymen could en- dure the infliction. No Irishmen, of course, could fall to so uninteresting a level as the Scotch standard of business excellence; but Monday nights per formance-the first of it's kind in my experience-reminded one at least of what the Scotch are capable and are, indeed in the habit of doing in the British talking shop. The only consola- tion is that while the Scotch are pretty certain to continue to be what they have been, the Irish are equally cer- tain to give the British portion of the Parliament lively times before the session Is over.