6o6 



The Review of Reviews. 



Britain ought to insist, as peremptorily 

 as on the Titanic, "Women first!" If 

 to this ethically irresistible demand the 

 memory of our Chief's life and death can 

 add popular momentum enough to " pass 

 the Bill " this year, none will rejoice more 

 than he. 



While American party 



The designations seem shortly 



" Unionist " Party, about to change, the title of 



one of the historic British 

 parties has been at last officially altered. 

 The national organizations of Conservative 

 Associations and of Liberal Unionist As- 

 sociations have become one, with Mr 

 Joseph Chamberlain's reiterated blessing. 

 " Conservative " has gone where " Tory " 

 went ; henceforth the party name is 

 " Unionist." The " Liberal Unionist " 

 drops his " Liberalism," and along with the 

 " Conservative " becomes solely "Unionist." 

 So far as the new name denotes simply 

 opposition to Home Rule, its adoption 

 during the very Session which marks the 

 victory of Irish Nationalism would suggest 

 the vi'e F Anarchic of the Anarchist under 

 the knife of the guillotine. Happily for 

 our national self-respect, the new label 

 co\crs more enduring qualities and ele- 

 ments more essential to statecraft. llie 

 British Empire is manifestly in the first 

 stages of a ])roccss which may or may 

 not lead to true organic unification. 

 That process, if successful, will consist in 

 the mutual adjustment and eventual satis- 

 faction of two tendencies. One tendency 

 will lay stress on the freedom of the parts; 

 the other on the unity of the wliole. 

 'i'hese tendencies will naturallv find ex- 

 |)ression in the councils of the Empire as 

 two parties. Neither party will ignore or 

 deny the special objective of the other ; 

 both will gram the necessity of local free- 



dom ; both will admit the desirableness of 

 Imperial unity. The dift'erence will be in 

 the emphasis on each tendency. " Unionist," 

 therefore, represents an enduring element in 

 the politics of the future. Its strength will 

 lie in standing for unity. Its weakness, as 

 in the present Session, will appear in oppos- 

 ing that mobility of the limbs of Empire 

 without which there can be no organic 

 movement of the whole. " Liberal " may 

 fairly claim to remain the logical opposite 

 of "Unionist." For, similarly, the weak- 

 ness of Liberalism has too often been a 

 forgetfulness of the claims of wider unity 

 in its strong pursuit of local autonomy. 

 These changes in party nomenclature on 

 both sides of the Atlantic present a curious 

 reversal of roles. The solidified Republic 

 develops divisions akm to the historic 

 British parties, while the coalescent Em- 

 pire adopts appellations reminiscent of the 

 earlier stages of American politics, when 

 "Republican" meant "Unitary" and 

 "Democrat" meant emphasis on local 

 State sovereigntjf. 



Meantime the^Home Rule 

 Growing^ Victory j^jn^ ,,,i,i^.i, j^ y^^^\^ ^^^■^^_ 



Home Rule. '^'"7 ^"'1 Nationalist, has 

 emerged from the ordeal 

 of the Second Reading in the House of 

 Commons with a triumphant majoritv of 

 loi. In spite of recurring spasms fi^om the 

 Orange moiety of Ulster, the real opposition 

 to the measiu^e is steadily dying down. In 

 the bye-elections, the Unionists themselves 

 being witness, there is no panic among the 

 voters at the approach of a subordinate 

 Irish Parliament. The most frenzied blasts 

 on the Orange horn leave them quite cool, 

 not to say frigid. The " No Poperv " 

 drum awakes no alarm. The countrv is, in 

 fact, quietly settling down to the prospect 

 of Home Rule as inevitable. So much is 



