The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-01-14
.helming majority.

My present forecast is that all of
these events are forcing Balfour to
rally his party, by abandoning tariff
reform, putting up a sham fight on
the House of Lords veto, and, finally,
concentrating on the fight against
Home Rule.
/. This anti-Irish cry plays the part
In English politics of the bloody shirt
CRY in the years after the civil war
in America, and already the Irish
Toryism is fiercely active, because i:
is seriously alarmed at the prophecy
ing of civil war and the appearing of
the mo popery" sentiment.
Redmond does useful service this
week by the article showing how
nearly half of Ulster is Catholic and
Home Rule, and by renewing his
pledge, often given before, that the
Irish party will welcome every safe
guard asked for the protection of re-
ligious liberty and absolute quality of
all creeds under Home Rule.
Chancellor in Poor Health.
I took lunch with Lloyd-George i'm
mediately after his return to London
from his election campaign, and l was
disquieted to see how much he has
changed in the course of few weeks
He looked several years older, his
face was drawn and pale, and he had
cough. He had to leave the next
day for Cape Martin, that lovely lit
tie tongue Of land just beyond Monte
Carlo, where so many Englishmen
seek rest and sunshine and escape
from the dreary fogs and depressing
dampness of the climate of a London
winter.
Mr.. Asquith is an astounding man
physically as we'll as intellectually.
He has been a hard worker all his
life. Married when he was quite
young, he was already the father Of
Elk children when he got his first pc.
litical office as home secretary in the
Gladstone ministry of 1892. Then his
wife died and he married again, as
everybody knows, Margot Tenant,
and by her he also has family. The
result was that he broke with all old.
er traditions. The tradition was that
once a man had taken high office, and
especially that office of home secre.
tary, he should abandon professional
life.
Even at the end of the arduous cam.
paign, while Lloyd George has had to
fly to the Riviera, Asquith was able
tc come to London from Scotland by
night train, to spend an hour with the
king, to meet the master of Elibank
and discuss political prospects and
the program for the coming session
of the House of Commons; and often
after this he was able to catch the
o'clock train in the afternoon and to
start once more for his home in Scot.
land.
Scandal Of Plural Vote.
There has been frequently a pro.
posal that all British elections should
lake place on one day. But it has al
ways broken down before opposition
of the Conservatives and the House
Of Lords. One of the objections to 1t
from the Tory point of view is that
It would do away with one of the
greatest scandals Of the electoral sys-
tenn in England-the scandal of the
plural vote.
The plural vote is one of those in
credible survivals that could only
happen in a country so old and SO
conservative as England. While it is
difficult for a workingman who has
any Of the nomadic habits imposed on
workingmen by the changefulness of
their opportunities for work to obtain
one vote, a citizen who has property
in different parts of the country is
able to get votes innumerable-some
times up to twenty or thirty. A man
even boathouse on the lake, and IN
these days of motor cars, some of
these pluralists career about the coun.
try and give their vote In one con.
stituency after another.
This is one Of the things which will
doubtless disappear when the new
House Of Commons begins it's work.
Meantime We have these prolonged
elections, extending over two or even
three weeks. Some of the elections
are made late by peculiar geograph.
lea, conditions.
In, the north of Scotland, for in.
stance, there is the constituency OF
the Highland isles, where men have
to go across in boats to reach the Doll.
ing station and where. accordingly
the result Of the poll is unknown for
some days after the election Is over
In Ireland there are some constituent