The Irish standard., 1910-12-31
The Elections Followed by Peace
Which Will Extend Over
Holiday Season.
Interest in the Ballotine Was Main-
tanned to the Last Possible
Moment.
Liberals and the Irish Party Now
Stronger Than Ever in
Parliament.

Though for the moment submerged,
politics still haunts the general i'm
agination, says r. P. O'Connor, M. P,
in his regular London letter cabled to
the Chicago Tribune last Saturday.
Like in neck and neck race on q
horse track, interest in the general
elections was maintained to the last
possible moment, as the supreme
question was whether the Liberal
ministry would come back as strong
us at the beginning of the election.
AS each day brought an almost
mathematical quality of gains and
losses to the Liberals and Tories, the
parties each new day watched with
the same feverish eagerness The last
day of the election involved the whole
problem, as the one seat in Scotland
held by the Liberals was expected to
go back to the Tories.
Liberals and Irish Happy.
Now that the result is finally over.
the Liberals and Irish are profoundly
satisfied. Some disappointment was
felt at the loss Of few seats which
better management might have saved,
or which were lost by some accident
or an inhnitesimal maturity, as in
Mile End where a Tory was returned
by a majority Of two.
But the great fact remains that,
contrary to all election precedents.
the same Liberal ministry was re-
turned three times in succession, and
the second time on the same issue.
That issue was the abolition of the
veto power of the house of lords.
Premier Asquith gave Indication of
the urgent Importance and close ap-
proach of the struggle on this ques-
tion by his hurried visit to the king.
Beyond all question Asquith and tho
other Liberal ministers mean bust
ness, and will withdraw from office
unless they are allowed to carry out
their full program of reform.
No Fight on Veto Power.
There will be no real opposition, /
believe, from the king, or even from
the house Of lords. l regard the aboli-
ton of the veto already as good "a
carried.
The Tories already are weakening
in some Of their sanest journals, and
everybody now knows that Asquith, II
driven to it, will have the will and
the power to create 500 Liberal peers.
Even the "backwoodsmen" peers
perceive that this submergence of the
present peers by these Liberal peers
would bring down the whole house of
lords in shouts of universal laughter,
and after much spluttering and
good deal of tall talk the peers will
yield, and probably will yield before
the coronation. X
The coronation, then, once more
comes to the front as a powerful fac
tor in the present situation.
Great Gains for Irish.
No party comes out Of this election
with such added prestige and power,
according to the universal acknowl-
edgment, as the Irish Redmond has
;dded power to his following by the
higher gain than by any other poll.
tical party, but, still more important,
Redmond has crushed factionism into
one small corner of Ireland. He has
beaten Healy, his most powerful op-
ponent. 8
More important than even all this
are the political conditions which
evolve from the election. The inn
mediate and vigorous campaign
against the house of lords, and the
clear, decisive utterances on home
lule by Asquith and the other Liberal
leaders during the election have
shown the Irish people that, at last.
their liberation is in sight. III
This fact, submerging all the minor
| issues and closing up all Of the small
dissensions, gives Redmond freer3
hand than he ever had in his career
and makes thus the relations between
him and Asquith easier, closer and
safer. 3sss
si1l to Go Through.
The whole tendency, believe, Will