13 FEBRUARY 1886, Page 3

It is clear that the refractory members of the party

remain sullen. There is an improbable rumour that Mr. Biggar con- templates retirement into private life; but Mr. Sullivan, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, declares that he will not regard Captain O'Shea as a member of the party, and at least ten other Parnellite Members either regard him with suspicion or say they do. Mr. Parnell is not likely to forgive Mr. Healy his pro- tection at Galway, and in Galway itself the electors almost refused to obey. Captain O'Shea was, it is true, returned, but by about a fourth of his proper number, and sixty-three Nationalists insisted on recording their votes for Mr. Lynch after he had

retired. As the Parnellites advance towards success, the incurable vice of Irish politicians, their inability to agree, reappears once more ; and just as Home-rule appears certain, we may see eighty- six leaders, with eighty-six policies, appear within the party. The scene at Galway Station was most ominous. It would be a strange and ironical termination of Mr. Parnell's career if he who has exensed so many mob outrages, should at the height of his power be himself the subject of one. Would he be content to describe that one as " unnecessary " ?