The San Francisco call., 1898-07-10


 but they would be perfectly intolerable | in large communities when not hun dreds but thousands of persons would have the right to and would vote 1n every ward. Moreover, the expenses of the elections-that is, the official ex- penses-would be borne by the rate payers and would be a very serious item under the new conditions. Under these circumstances it is not wonder full that the Dublin corporation and the majority of the other local bodies have voted in favor of the triennial system; and the probability now is that the Government will decide in favor of that system and make 1t compulsory throughout the whole of Ireland Mean while considerable speculation is gong on In Dublin as to who will be Loru Mayor for next year under the enlarged franchise. If the question were to be decided on political lines, of course there could be no question as to the re- suit. Dublin is overwhelmingly Far nellite, and in a purely political con- test none but a Parnellite Lord Mayor could possibly be elected, as has been proved by the events of the last four teen or fifteen years. But many per sons In the Nationalist ranks thlnR that political considerations in these local elections should be at last sunk, that the past should be entirely forgot ten, and that the majority should elect member of the minority; and so 1t comes to pass that Sir Robert sexton, an Englishman and a Unionist, who has been a long time resident ana prominent member of the Unlonlst party in Dublin, but at the same time a man personally most respectable and well liked by every class, has been put forward for the office of chief magis- trate not merely by his own party but by section of the Nationalists, or at least of those who profess to De Ma tionalists What will eventually be done in this matter no one can at pres ent say; for the choice of the corpora tion of Dublin, which will be made on the first Monday In July, may be wholly reversed by the new corpora tion. which will come into office in No vember on the new franchise. But one thing at least may be said with abso- lute certainty. It is that If it were made clear that no political capital would be made of the election of Unionist or Tory Lord Mayor of Dub lin, such a man might possibly be elect ed even unanimously. The whole or chief question is whether Sir Robert Sexton would use his position of Lord Mayor to advance Unionist principles or the OHlOIlSl cause. II liC NONAN NAO so it would be impossible for National ists to vote for him: if he would not do so the result might be different.
 This week there has been the annual reunion at Maynooth College of the Catholic Bishops and the members of the Catholic Union of Ireland which comprises among others several of the leading minor Catholic ecclesiastics of Ireland The most notable outcome of the gathering of the Bishops has been a pretty strong pronouncement against the managerial system in force in the Irish national schools. The queS- ton here at issue can hardly be un- derstood by outsiders without some ex- planation. The national schools of Ire land-that is, the schools supported by a grant from imperial funds-are man. aged generally speaking, by Catholic clergymen or by Protestant or Presby- terian clergvmen. They appoint the teachers, and the latter may be cash tered at any time, without any cause shown, by the manager on three months notice. The whole question Is whether the managers should have the power of dismissal on three months mo- tice or not, and the Catholic Bishops say they ought, while a large number of influential lay Catholics say that they ought not to have any power of the kind Of course. this matter is not go- ing to be settled now; but the longer a settlement of it is delayed, the worse from every point of view; and mean while there is certain to be consider able friction.
 Next week in Parliament was to have been devoted to the question of the financial relations between England and Ireland and to the remaining dis cussions in the great local government bill; but all Irish questions have been postponed for week at Westminster, owing to the illness of the Chief Sec retary for Ireland. Mir. Gerald Balfour. By the time this letter is published, therefore, the subject of the local gov ernment bill for Ireland will again have been on the tapis if it will not have actually been finally disposed of. Whether it will have come to a close or not, I may add, matters very little, for the changes in the bill which re- main to be made are of very little inn portance But 1t is different regarding the question of the financial relations between Great Britain and Ireland. On this matter the controversy is only be- ginning, and that it will continue for many a year is certain. In a future letter, I shall outline the controversy which is herein involved; for the pres ent, I shall content myself with add ing that all parties in Ireland are ab- solutely united on this subject, though how far each of them is prepared to go in the effort to obtain redress remains tO he Sppn