The Irish standard., 1903-06-20
The Government Now Has the Power to
Garry the Irish Land Question to
Final Settlement.
George Wyndham Destined to Attain
Commanding Place in the Public
Life of His Country.

volved in that Education act, for am
now only regarding it as one Of the
elements of trouble with which the
Conservative administration is threat
ened. The dissenting bodies COM
plain that the new measure compels
Dissenters to pay for the maintaining
of schools which are practically under
the control of the Church Of England,
and to contribute toward the sums
which are spent in the teaching of re-
ligious doctrines to which Dissenters
cannot conform. There is an agita-
ton already going on among the dis
sentng bodies all over Great Britain,
with the object of organizing a reso-
lutte passive resistance to the enforce
ment of these rates. The principle of
such resistance has been adopted and
proclaimed at great public meetings
held in various parts of the country,
and is to be adopted and announced at
a vast public assemblage to be held in
Hyde Park. A journal so influential
and so thoroughly constitutional as the
London Daily News advocates this
passive resistance in it's leading ar
ticles many times during every week.
Now it is quite certain that the Dis
senters and Noncomformists of Great
Britain constitute powerful, a
wealthy and in every sense an import
ant section of the English people. If
this policy Of passive resistance be
steadily carried out and the authorities
are compelled to confiscate the goods
and chattels of every Dissenter who
refuses to pay the education rate, then
the Government will have a piece of
work on their hands such as no Eng
lish administration has ever had to en-
counter during my recollection of pub
lie life.
One member of the administration
at least has made a brilliant figure this
session during the discussion of the
Irish Land bill-Mr George Wynd-
ham, who holds the Office of Chief
Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant Of
Ireland. Mr.. Wyndham is still COM
paratively young man, for he has not
yet reached his fortieth birthday. He
was brought up as soldier and served
in the Coldstream Guards, and saw
something of war during the Suakim
campaign in 1885. He entered Parlia-
ment four years after, and has held
the position of Under Secretary for
War. He was for time private Sec
retary to Arthur Balfour, and thus we
may assume obtained much practical
experience of political affairs. An an
cestor of his was killed during the
English Civil War doing battle for the
Stuart cause. George Wyndham, of
whom am now speaking, has a Pc
culiar connection through his family
with Ireland, and even with Irish re-
bellion. He is the great grandson of
the famous Pamela, who is set down
in history as the daughter of Philippe
Egalite, who died upon the scaffold
during the French Revolution. PANE
Ia married Lord Edward Fitzgerald,
one of the most brilliant and devoted
leaders of the Irish rebellion of 1893,
who was captured in Dublin, strug-
gled hard to resist his captors, and
died of the wounds he received in the
encounter. Lord Edward Fitzgerald
came of high ancestry, for he was the
son of the then Duke of Leinster. His
name is still held in honor and vener-
alton by all Irish Nationalists at home
and abroad. Much interest was felt
on this account in Wyndham's career
when he became Chief Secretary to
the Lord Lieutenant, which means, in
fact, Chief Secretary for Ireland. For
long time he had to perform the un-
gracious part Of administering the sys-
TEN Of laws prevailing until lately in
Ireland, a system under which all law
was virtually suspended when political
questions came up, and Ireland was
governed by policy Of absolute mill.
tary coercion, and her prison cells
were occupied by many Of her men,
bers Of Parliament and other leading