Mr. Chamberlain spoke at Birmingham last Saturday to a Committee
of the National Radical Union, on the position of the Radical Unionists and their relation to the Home-rule Party. The general drift of his remarks was that the Radical Unionists are not averse to the concession of an Irish Legislature, but that they cannot abandon their conditions. These conditions are, according to Mr. Chamberlain, that British credit should not be pledged for Irish landlords; that Ireland should be frilly represented in the Imperial Parliament, since without this con- dition Separation would be inevitable ; that only defined subjects should be committed to the Irish Legislature, and that that Legislature should be in every sense subordinate; that the maintenance of order and justice in Ireland should be kept in the hands of the Imperial Parliament and the central Adminis- tration ; that Ireland should not be reduced to the position of a tribute-paying Province; that the anomalous Constitution of the new Legislature, as sketched in Mr. Gladstone's Bill, with its two orders, and property qualification and plurality of votes, should be withdrawn ; and that 'Ester should be excluded from the jurisdiction of the new Legislature. Without the conces- sion of these terms, the reconciliation of the two sections of the Liberal Party is, says Mr. Chamberlain, impossible ; and from some cause or other, Mr. Gladstone either will not, or cannot, as yet make these concessions. Therefore, Mr. Chamberlain advo- cates the organisation of the Radical and Liberal Union, as it is no longer possible to get Unionist Liberals to vote for Unionist Tories, and it would be needful in the future to pro- vide them with candidates of their own. If that be so, the result must be that the Home-rulers will generally triumph, even though the majority of the constituency should be opposed to Home-rule. Is it worth while to elaborate a great organisation to achieve that rather lame and futile result I,
