296 Dillon as to the Irish Situation t I 9 10 



get out of a square fight with the Lords, and are manoeuvring to per- 

 suade the Irish party to support the Budget and let them stay on in 

 office without bringing the veto question to a positive issue. This, how- 

 ever, the Irish are determined not to consent to. Their plan is first 

 to support the resolutions against the Lords ; then when the Govern- 

 ment brings in the Budget to vote for it on the second reading, but not 

 on the third, and to insist that Asquith shall first get guarantees from 

 the King that he will create a sufficient number of Peers to pass a Veto 

 Bill. If the King promises, well and good. They will then vote the 

 third reading of the Budget, and help to get the Veto Bill through ; but 

 if, as is almost certain, the King refuses, then they will insist on 

 Asquith's resigning, or if he will not resign they will vote against the 

 third reading. Dillon says they are absolutely determined on this, and 

 he authorized me to give Churchill a message to that effect. He cal- 

 culates that in this way they can force Balfour to take office, which will 

 lead to a still greater deadlock than ever. Balfour, he thinks, dares 

 not pass the Budget, yet cannot carry on the Government without doing 

 so during the three months needed for a new General Election. 



" He told me a number of interesting things about Ireland. Wynd- 

 ham's Land Bill has had the effect of changing the whole character of 

 the peasantry. Instead of being careless, idle and improvident, they 

 have become like the French peasantry, industrious and economical, 

 even penurious. Marriages are now contracted later, though the limita- 

 tion of families had not yet begun owing to Catholic influences, and he 

 repeated to me what he had said about this influence in Australia, 

 Canada, and the United States. ' It is in this way,' he said, ' that the 

 non-Catholic civilization will be beaten by the Catholic. Irish and 

 Italian are replacing English and Dutch settlers everywhere in America. 

 Boston, which used to be the home of the Puritans, now always elects 

 a Catholic mayor.' 



" As to the House of Commons, he says : ' The Labour party has 

 gone altogether to pieces. They can't collect money enough to keep 

 themselves going. The Radicals have no leaders of ability. They 

 have been obliged to take us ' (Redmond and himself) ' as their leaders. 

 The Government is weak and divided ; it has lost all prestige.' Dillon 

 had urged them over and over again to resign directly they found they 

 could not get the King's help against the Lords, but they clung to office, 

 and now they are discredited. 



" 2nd April. — A week-end party at Newbuildings. The Churchills, 

 the Granville Barkers, and Beauclerk, with great discussions. Winston 

 had been to Brighton for the day, and had been entertained by the 

 Mayor and taken a round of reformatory schools, and had been hissed 

 and cheered by rival factions at the railway station. He means business 

 with his prison reforms, and is making a distinction between political 



