The times., 1901-05-12
LONDON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
Comment on the Suppression of the
sErish peouIe.v

Comment on the Suppression of the
Irish People"
LONDON. May 1.-THE King will hard
ly thank the Government for their extra
ordinary action in suppressing the Irish
People" for though the suggestion is
without a particle of foundation, no Irish
man will believe that the King himself is
not the prime mover in the high-handed
proceedings which provoked such storm
in the House of Commons last night. Irish
political life is still so divorced from Eng
lish political life that Irishmen have no
means to appreciate. as Englshmen do.
the essentially liberal character of the
Kings personal views. and how striking a
contrast he presents in this respect to his
late mother. Mr. Gladstone, not Disraeh.
was always his political exempiar. ana
even his superabundant discretion could
not always hide the fact.
In the matter of the suppression of the
Irish People" the King was not, of
course consulted. telegram from Dub
lin Castle informed the Chief Secretary
of the purport of the leading article, at
tacking the Kings accession oath because
of it's branding of Catholicism as idola-
trous and superstitious, and also attack
ing the person of the sovereign in the
y
oratory The Chief Secretary. after
hasty conference with Mr.. Balfour, who
is his close political friend and who in
the absence of Lord Salisbury is his chief.
peremptorily ordered the seizure and sup
preston of the issue No one defends
this personal attack on the King. 1t was
wanton, baseIess-even stupid-but there
is widespread feeling that Roman Cath
olics have good reason to resent the hesi-
fancy in the removal of these provoking
and screaming epithets from the royal
declaration. and, whether rightly or
wrongly, they attribute this hestancy to
the influence of the aggressive Protes-
tants here in England and the still more
aggressive anti-Catholics of Ulster.
Thus politics have been allowed to in
trude. At this moment the worst religious
passions are being aroused by gigantic
wall-posters. issued by the Church Asso-
citation, and placarded over London, call
ing Protestants to arms. and threatening
Ergland's downfall at the hands of Rome
unless these medieval epithets are thrust
into the sovereign's mouth. Sympathy
with the King is quickened by the knowl-
edge that he himself realizes the unnec
essarily provocative character of the
phrasing OF the royal declaration, and has
used his influence with the Ministry in
favor of it's excision. But while the Ian
guage of the Irish People" is inexcus-
able, the gravest doubts are expressed
of the legality of the Governments ac-
ton. The House supported the Govern
ment, last night, because it felt, as Mr..
Asquith said, the extreme unwisdom of
making Parliamentary protest against
an act which can be and ought to be leg
ally enquired into on the action by the
journal itself in the courts for damages
against the Government
The Ministry is reminded, this morning,
how Mr.. Kruger suppressed the Johannes
burg star" by decree. for lampooning
him. and how even the despised Trans
vaal courts quashed the Presidents edict.
The British Ministry may now learn that
even in ireland law is supreme.
Next Monday the great tussle begins
over the Government army scheme, and
so unsettling have recent events been
upon Ministerial loyalty that anything is
possible, even the defeat of the Ministry,
before the bill is sent to the House of
Lords. Military members, seventy-eight
strong. mostly Ministerialists, have pro-
nounced against the scheme, while Mr..
Winston Churchill. playing into the
hands of the enemies alike OF all reform
and OF this particular reform, moves for
postponement. The Ministry Will meet
these attacks by a declaration that the
bin must be accepted in substance as IL
stands that is to say, the Ministry If they
mean what they say, viii resign rather
than abandon or materially alter the
scheme. Such a threat generally brings
open political revolt TO an end in English
political life, but it leaves a spirit of dis
satisfaction which encourages slack at
tendances, and then one night alert Lib
eral and Irish parties catch the Ministry
unaware in the division Hobbies, and all
is over
Last night, for instance. on the Scotch
education vote the Government were
caught mapping. and their ma jority fell to
twelve, dangerously near the vanishing
point. The Government evoked no en-
thuSiaSm by their new education bill 1t
is aVowedly intended to meet the dis
placement of 900 scholars from the
mandate which the law courts have laid
upon the school boards to confine them
selves rigidly to elementary instruction,
but in reality il does nothing of the kind,
for ii is given out among Ministerialists
that. Of course, it cannot be passed this
year. 1t looks. indeed like a mere poll
tical kite, designed to rally round the
Ministry the Church and all who dislike
the board schools and unsectarian educa-
ton. The new local educational commit
tees which it proposes TO set up ali over
England and Wales are shadOwy bodies
without control over elementary educa-
tion. This is left for the present to the
school boards. without power TO raise
money or spend a farthing more than is
allotted by the county or the borough
councils elected for quite other purposes. ]
In fact, educationalists of all grades agree
that the bill does nothing but increase the
chaos into which the educational system
here has been allowed to drift If its pur-
pose is not political, II is difficult to say