The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-03-16
EXCITING SCENES IN
BRITISH PARLIAMENT
BaIfour Government Defeated by Majority of
Eleven Votes.
Irish Planned and Successfully Executed COupPremier De-
cIines to Resign.

and for nearly five minutes pandemoni-
um reigned.
Several times Sir Thomas Esmonde
tried to read out the figures. but his
voice was drowned in the uproar
Mr. BalfOur. who had been just i'm
time 10 vote for the government, sat
smiling grimly. Finally. there was
monde read:
Ayes. 141; noes. 100"
At this the storm Of cheering broke
out afresh. The government was de-
feated by eleven votes
a rush to the lobby followed. and
the members animatedly discussed
whether or not Mr.. BalfOur would re-
sign. The premier, however. set these
/ doubts at rest by saying that ne saw
no reason for such action. Thanks 90
the prolonged eXuberance OF the Irish
cheers and hectic ring of Mr. BalfOur.
the government whips got the chance OF
summoning their absent supporters and
when about ten minutes later John
Redmond moved 10 report progress on
the ground that the government had
not a majority able to transact the
business of the government the gov
eminent secured d narrow majority OF
twenty-five.
Government Saved.
If the division had occurred a few
minutes earlier the government ineVita-
bly, would have been defeated and COM
[ PEELED 10 resign To avert this. old
men who had not run for many year
came rushing into the house. painfully
! out of breath, while Sir Thomas Henry
! Carson had not even waited 10 put on
/ a necktie.
BY a curious coincidence the only
/ other defeat suffered by the Cnionist
party since Lord Salisbury came into
, power and which endangered the eX-
/ istence Of the government. occurred
/ nearly eighty years ago on Thomas Es-
monde's amendment 10 Thomas Bal
I four's land purchase bill. when Il again
I fell 70 the lot of the present chief va
Of the Irish Party 70 declare the gov
/ eminent i'm minority, which on that
+ occasion, was one of only four votes.
Were outwitted.
The members of the government and
I their supporters tonight profess that
I they regard today's division more In
{ the light Of a joke than anything else
although they admit that il is a par
ticularly annoying joke, especially in
view Of the pending bye-election. There
is no suggestion OF sharp practice. and
! even the members of the ca binet admit
I privately that they were WOefully out
witted by the "irrepressible Irish"
Sir Thomas EsmOnde. H. summing ~
the events of one Of the most eventful
4 days in the recent English political
I history. said TO the Associated Press
--TOday's division may be taken rs
the handwriting on the wall EX-
perienced parliamentary hands do not
/ attach undue importance TO IL, but
nevertheless, it Enthusiastically fore
shadows an approaching dissolution,
| which to some extent it hastens. It is
I a blow TO the morale of the govern
( ment and its supporters and a CORE
/ spending encouragement to their or
I pOnents in parliament and in the COun-
| try. 1t is enough to know that the gov
eminent has been effectively reduced.
how, il does not matter To inquire. We
understand that they are i'm difficulties
in the house and we know that they
are not as we'll qualified as they are
supposed to be to carry on the business
of the country The pendulum is al
ready swinging towards a Liberal re-
vival and today's events accelerate
that movement. With one or more ad-
verse divisions in the house of com
mons an appeal to the country becomes
inevitable. OF course, there is always
a chapter Of accidents-in politics the
only thing certain is the unforeseen:
but unless the return Of Joseph Cham
berlain after Easter brings new vigor
and new cohesion to the Cnionist par
ty, their race is we'll nigh run