The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-29

disfoyalists were always unpopular. even with their political allies; the Irish loyalists were popular. even with
 the British home rulers. After the resignation of Lord Randolph chur- chiii, the unions were in want of c champion. for neither Lord Salisbury
 nor the Duke of Devonshire excited
 the enthusiasm of mass metings. and
 Mir. Chamberlain was disabled for the
 time by his very recent severance from
 his old party. Besides, what the pub
 lie wanted was an Irishman, who had
 seen and felt the things of which Brit
 ish unionists only spoke at second
 hand. In the vacant post stepped Col
 onei saunderson. and no one was ever
 better fitted by nature and accident for
 the role than this daring and unsi-
 lsnceable man. He belonged to that
 class of politicians of whom Byron wrote:
 Their breath is agitation, and their life A storm whereon they ride;
 for Colonel saunderson was never so happy as in the thick of an Irish row. whether in the House of Commons or on the platform. His career is a striking instanuce of the crisis creating the hero, for saunderson was first elected for County Cavan in 1865 as a
  years he made no particular impression and took very little interest in poli- ties. Tn 1874 he was turned out by Biggar, to whom he referred in a lapse of good breeding very rare with him. as my graceful and eminent success sor.' For ten years he was out Of Parliament, lived as Castle Saunderson chiefly and amused himself with yacht ing. shooting. riding and preaching in hiu oxwn ehanAl and af avanRelfrAi meetings. For he was the most extra ordinary combination of seriousness and levtty that has ever been seen |.
 He was deeply religious. and before getting up to set the table in a roar, at a public meting or In the House Of Commons, would pray to God ito give
 him the right word" His Nationalist opponents expressed their perception
 of the occasional ludicroueness of fa- naticlsm mixed with vivacity by call- ing him "a dervish" and a Cromwell lan." The gay evangelical is perhaps | peculiar to the gentry of the north. ox | Ireland. and Colonel Saunderson. the | lay preacher. was as different 6 person from Colonel Saunderson. the witty | politician, the dinerout and yachtsmar,
 as pr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.
 The onward sweep of home rule and Giadstones conversion in 1885 recalled
 saunderson to politics as to life and
 death struggle for hts country. He was returned for North Armagh. and
 for . decade. from the age of 4s to 5s | was the life and soul of the Unionie' Party. The simplicity of his method proclaimed his genius. Ills gospel
 was contained in one sentence: "Ws | will not have home rule: and if you | force it upon us, we will resist 1t by force" He never condeseended to ar gue the clauses of a bill; he probably never read an act of Parliament in his | life. He concluded speech on an | Irish land act by saying that he would
 support 1t. though disappointed with | it's provisions. and immediately after ward confded to a colleague that h'
 had never seen the bill. But in sea | son and out of season. relevantly oi
 irreleyantly. he preached his simple
 text with a vigor and variety tha' carried every audience before him
 There was consummate art in thii | neglect of details and logical rel,
 evancy. which men in masses cared
 nothing about. Surely Saundersol
 was born mob orator if ever ther' 1 was one.