The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-10-15
They Hope to Overcome the Unpopu1arity
of Joseph Chamberlain's Protection
Ideas in That Way.
1t is Game Of Politics But Home Rule
Problem Will Soon be Beyond the
Reach of the Politician.

On this side OF the Atlantic as or
yours, an election is in view, and every
political incident is colored according
ly. Hence when the cable echoes the
note of Unionist alarm at the reviva
of the Irish home rule agitation, it is
necessary to remember that the note
is most useful one in warning timid
Unionists that the heroism of their
desertion from Gladstone for the sake
of the Union in the eighties and nine
ties will be much dimmed if because
of a certain Joseph Chamberlain and
his protectionism they now waver in
allegiance to Mr.. Balfour. "After all
these years of magnificent fighting for
the unity Of the empire and the legis-
lative integrity Of the United King
dom, will you now allow the Nation
alist wolf to enter the fold and steal
the sheep?" So cries the Times, and
the timid Unionist revolters shrink
back in terror at the very thought.
t:The Union in danger" is in truth a
fine election catch cry with which to
meet the formidable "Cheap loaf in
danger and the Balfour- Chamber
lain party mean to make the most of it,
says the New York Evening Post.
OF course, when you come to ana
lyze this "UniQn in danger" argument,
it is found to be poor, thin thing.
1t is founded on the assumption that
the under secretary for Ireland, Sir
Antony MacDonnell. is Home Ruler
at heart, and that Mr.. George Wynd-
ham, as Irish secretary and Irish
spokesman in parliament, and Lord
Dudley, the Irish viceroy, are but
feeble instruments in the hands of this
Dublin castle dictator. The case is
set out in the prettiest Of ways by
one "vigilans'' Of Dublin. He is al
lowed leader type in the Times, and
must be parsonage in the Irish cap
ital. He recalls the fact that when
Mr.. Arthur Balfour was chief secre-
tary, no one bothered to ask what any
one in Dublin castle thought Or said
Arthur 3. was the man. Similarly
with Mr.. Morley-"the most autocratic
chief secretary since the Union" But
as for Mr.. Wyndham-he may be
"weary Of his office and having identi-
fed his name with what is at last the
final land measure "a fine touch Of
Irish Tory irony here) is now resting
on his oars until the general election
RENTS him to some other sphere" At
any rate-says this Dublin parsonage,
and tile Times accepts his view-the
voice may be the voice of Wyndham,
but the word is the word Of MacDon-
nell, and it is the word of convinced
Home Ruler and devoted Romanist.
There u.s. in short, we are asked to
believe on this high authority, "a
triumvirate in Ireland, and, while it is
not difficult to identify Pompeius,
Fortunes spoilt child, who yet was not
equal to the achievement of all that
Fortune offered, it may seem an ex-
travagant hypothesis that one who
chances to bear a name forever asso-
ciated with Caesars should be the
Caesar of this modern triumvirate.
But if Mr.. Wyndham is not respon-
sible for the wild views which are
now current in Ireland. and which,
though voiced by few harmless peers
and country gentlemen not famous
for either knowledge or judgment, are,
rightly, l believe. assumed to be in
spired, no one thinks of crediting Lord
Dudley with being anything more
than the apt pupil of Sir Antony Mac
Donnell, whose weight of years and
the prestige attaching to his position
as an eX-lieutenant-governo in India
have made him too big for his present
boots and quite too large handful for
one of Lord Dudley's youth and mex
perience."
OF course, Mr.. Wyndham, the pride
of effective Toryism and the bosom
friend of the prime minister, could
not remain silent under this kind of
imputation of impotence, and he takes
the most unusual course of addressing