In the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr. Bonar Law
said that he had no intention of making any statement at present on affairs in Ireland. This terse refusal satisfied the great majority of mem- bers, who are frankly delighted that the Government have at last acted so far as to arrest the most notorious mischief-makers. If the Irish Nationalists think it a grievance that no further questions were asked, they have only themselves to blame. Mr. Dillon has proved himself a thoroughly vacillating and ineffectual leader. He professes to believe in " Constitutionalism," but he acts in nine cases out of ten as though he did not believe in it. If he believes in it, he and his Party ought to be at Westminster now. In form he repudiates Sinn Fein, and hopes thereby to retain American sympathy ; but in practice he is uniting with Sinn Fein in treason able resistance to Conscription. He is still a member of the Dublin Mansion House Conference, which is an open alliance of Sinn Fein and Nationalism. He has spoken of the arrested Sinn Feiners as his " colleagues." He has consented to the allocation of money contributed for the anti-Conscription movement to the support of the dependants of the arrested Sinn Feiners.
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