268 



The Review of Reviews. 



wild career as liypotlietical rebels lias had 

 a cooling influence. They are finding, too, 

 that they have raised a Frankenstein which 

 they cannot lay. Tiieir cue has been to 

 incite Ulster to rebellion if Home Ride is 

 passed without another General Election. 

 Were another (xcneral Election to return 

 a majority in favour of Home Rule the 

 leaders of the Opposition would have no 

 consistent course open to them but to 

 counsel submission. But the irreconcilables 

 of Ulster have no intention of allowing their 

 destiny to be decided by another General 

 Election, or any number of General Elec- 

 tions. On the forthcoming Ulster Day, 

 the 28th inst., they propose to take a solemn 

 covenant j)ledging themselves, " if a Home 

 Ride Bill becomes law, not to acknowledge 

 the Parliament in Oulilin, not to obey its 

 laws, and to pay no taxes to it." This is 

 unconditional refusal to acknowledge the 

 authority of the Parliament of the United 

 Kingdom. 



The Unionist capture of 

 North - West Manchester 

 with a Eibcral vote de- 

 creased by i,iSS and a 

 Unionist vote increased bv 439 was largely 

 obtained by keeping "^Fariff Reform in the 

 background —Sir John Randies, though a 

 Tariff" Reformer, says he has "all al(;ng 

 refused to acknowledge it i\^ the issue" — and 

 by dilating on the inconveniences caused 

 by the Insurance Act. The electors on 

 both sides seemed to be very tepid about 

 Home Rule and Welsh Disestablish- 

 ment. The East Carmarthen contest shows 



The 

 By-elections 



a niaioritv of 3,817 votes 



the 



Unionist candidate. Inhere was an increase 

 in the Liberal vote of 257, and in the 

 Unionist xote of 1,039. Phe I>abour vote 



sank 



^y 



8 



/■ 



'i'lie friends of (liiirch 



defence profess themselves satisfied with 



the result ; but in the return of a Non- 

 conformist minister and champion of Dis- 

 establishment with nearly three thousand 

 majority the nation at large will not see any- 

 thino; but an endorsement of tlie Govern- 

 ment Welsh policy. The fact remains that 

 out of thirty-eight electoral contests since 

 the last General Election, the Unionists 

 have only gained ' seven seats. And this 

 after all the revolutionary horrors proposed 

 by the present Government have been 

 completel}' unmasked ! 



The retirement of the 

 Curious Exit Master of Elibank from 



of the , . . r 1 



Liberal Whip. ^ '"-' position of the 

 Liberal Chief Whip is 

 accompanied with unusual circumstances. 

 He" not merely receives a peerage, but also 

 withdraws from political life. Hfs health, 

 it is said, cannot stand the long and late 

 hours of Parliament. He will devote his 

 energies to the management of his father's 

 estates, and will become a director of a 

 noted engineering firm with large in- 

 terests in oil. The choice of a com- 

 mercial in preference to a political career 

 in the case of a man who has ailvanccd 

 so far on the high road to j)olitical 

 power is unusual. Still more unusual is 

 the line he has taken in respect of the seat 

 which he has just \acated. Hearing that 

 the Midlothian miners might desire to 

 nominate their agent, Mr. Robert Brown, 

 Provost of Dalkeith, as Labour candidate, •' 

 the new V^iscount wrote to the Midlothian 

 Liberals stating that in this case he would ask 

 the pros|)ective Liberal candidate to hold ' 

 himself in reserve for another Scottish 

 constituency, and would earnestly advise 

 his own Liberal supporters to "concen- 

 trate on the Provost of Dalkeith " as a 

 thoroughly experienced politician, of wide 

 sympathies, sound common sense, and strong 



