The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-03-11
surrender so shameful as to be i'm

possible.
On the whole. I still lean to the
opinion that the house Of lords will
once, but nobody can tell.
Tories HopelessIy Divided.
Will the Tory party recover itself
within any interval of time that can
now be forecast? OF course it would
recover itself, political parties espe-
cially with such ancient and such inn
mense forces behind them, are not go
ing to disappear. lie would be a
childish dreamer who thought so. But
will the Tories recover within one year.
two years. four years, which, in poli-
ties today are almost an epoch" At
doing so. Never have they appeared
so divided, so dispirited, so hopelcssly
wrong, so much out OF all luck as they
have been during the first weeks OF
the present parliament. They don't
seem TO be able to do anything right.
Every card they play seems to be
with apparently a fistful Of trumps. The
Mccain marriage case has aroused no.
popery passion to a dangerous extent
in Ulster, was beginning TO do the same
thing in England and Scotland when
first presented to the house Of COM
mons, sent both the nonconformist
, the depths Of something like despair,
: and yet Joe Devlin of Belfast got up
and. in five minutes, had blown tho
whole story to atoms! Their attack or
! reciprocity between the United States
and Canada met with even Il worse
/ fate, and now their third attack on
home rule has ended in as big fiasco
as the other two. And the curious
part of the transaction is that this
attack on home rule has come almost
as a message of rescue to both the
Liberals and the Irish ranks.
Desirable to Raise Question.
1t was most desirable, both from the
English and the irish point Of view,
that the home rule question should he
raised, but it was not easy for either
English Liberals Of l:'sh National
lists to raise it. An amendment to
the debate on the address is a vote
nf t1,n Nf t1,C
day, and no Liberal and no Irish Ma
tionalist could propuse motion, the
carriage of which might have meant
a cersure Oh the government. And
thus it became impossible for home
rule to be mentioned on the address
by either Liberals or Irish Nationalsts.
the interests of British Libel alism for
opinion has to be educated and pre-
pared for the next ~ months so that
the home rule bill when it is inrro-
duced at the end of that period may
come on nation that has been in
formed on the realities and the veraci-
represented by INSCRIPTIONS parti-
sanship on the Tory side. II was
even more necessary in the interest of
the Irish nationalist people and party.
AS everybody knows, there is con-
stant attempt in Ireland to represent
the Liberal leaders as tcicksters. and
Tr;xl Il, =
ton of home rule. One must be pa
tient with a certain amount Of mis-
understanding, and even morbid sus-
picion. among the Irish people who live
in Ireland. 1"eland's history is full
Of the most tragic instances of prom
ises made and promises broken on the
part. of the British rulers in the past,
from the disg.accfnl abandonment of
his pledge by Charles l. and still more
disgraceful abandonment by Charles
II. to the violation OF the pledges of
the treaty of Limerick.
The debate was even more useful
as clearing the air OF eve"y possible
miscOnceptiOn. We now know first
! that a home rule measure will be the
first business of the next session of
the house of commons. We know Sec
Ond, that it will be full self govern
ment, not the shifty half way house of
the Irish council bill. We know third
ly that the bill will assure fully the
Al, aes11
| 1,40O Catholic Bishops.
At present the number of Catholic