The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-03-11
John Redmond Has Succeeded in Organizing
the Irish Vote in England as Well
as in Ireland.
Balfour Will Cling to Office as Long as His
Majority Consists Of Even
Corporal's Guard.

majority of 152 to resist the Irish de-
mand can muster a majority of only
so against it, the very opening of the
session, it indicates pretty clearly that
all the fighting spirit has been driven
out of the Tory majority, and that the
end is near. The figures mean that
the present government was able to
muster only 20 more votes against Ire
lands demand for home rule than the
majority of 80 by which Gladstone's
first home rule bill of 1856 was defeat
ed, so that change Of II votes would
have put the question back OIL the
pedestal on which the home rule cause
stood when it was first espoused by
Gladstone twenty years ago. And it
is hazarding nothing to predict that
at the approaching general election it
is not II, but five or six times that
number Of seats that will be swung
for home rule by the Irish vote in Eng
lish and Scotch constituencies.
The outlook for the home rule cause,
therefore. has not been for years as
hopeful as it is today. Any day may
bring the general election, and when it
comes it will be to insure majority
in the next House of Commons favor
| able to the passage of a home rule
bill, with an Irish party 80 or IS in
number solidly lined up to force it's
passage.
Balfour's own declaration, in the
course Of a debate, that there will
have to be wide departure from the
old lines in the future government Of
Ireland, indicates that the Tories them
selves see the handwriting on the wall,
and that even in the judgment of the
most fossiliZed members of that party
| the present system Of caste rule in Ire
land is doomed to early destruction.
Further significance is lent to this
phase of the matter by the still smaller
majority which the government was
able to command against Mr.. Red
mond's second motion, affecting the ac-
tion Of Chief Secretary Wyndham and
the under secretary, Sir Anthony Mac
! Donnell, when the governments ma
jority was still further reduced to AZ
in house of 4S9 members. Under Or
| binary circumstances such close vote
\ would have involved the resignation Of
the minister against whom the motion
was directed, and it was no wonder
the Irish members shouted: "Resign,
| |Wyndham," when the figures were
ANNOUNCED. But Balfour has apparent
ly made up his mind to cling to office
as long as his majority consists of
even corporal's guard, for he recog-
nizes that if general election is
forced, he is doomed to spend years in
the cold shade of opposition.
The question involved in the motion
regarding Sir Anthony MacDonnell is
vitality important. MacDonnelrs BROTH
er. DR.. Mark Anthony MacDonnell, NJ.
r.. for the LEX division of Queens
county, is a member of the Irish party,
Sir Anthony MacDonnell was brought
back from India two years ago, dur
ing the coercion regime in Ireland, and
given practically complete charge of
the Irish government in Dublin CASTLE
1t was strongly intimated Mt the time
I that he had been given a practically
free hand by the king to reverse the
coercion policy and inaugurate a pol
icy of reform in the Castle government
At all events the coercion proclama-
! ti0n was revoked and the prisoners in
generated under it released immedi-
ately after he reached Dublin, followed
in little while by the land purchase
act and other internal reforms in the
system of Castle government. The
Orangemen at once raised a hue and
cry that MacDonnell was at heart a
nationalist and home ruler, and that
he was simply carrying out the sys-
TEN Of government in the interest of
the Nationalist party.
MacDonnell, On the other hand,
found himself hampered in carrying
on his work by the failure of Chief
Secretary Wyndham to support him in
! his views within the past few months.