Others besides Mr. Cosgrave are disappointed, or at any rate
surprised, but the results bear out remarkably the reasonable forecast which our Dublin correspondent wrote last week. What is to follow when the Dail meets. on October 11th ? It is asking a great deal of Mr. Cosgrave if we expect him to undertake the task of trying to go on governing without the support of a solid majority. Another General Election would disgust the country and probably yield no more satisfactory results than the last. We hear of efforts to bring about a coalition by reconciling the two big parties in order to strengthen the .credit of the Free. State. for the sake of its present most urgent need, a loan. We can suggest nothing better, but we can have very little hope of its lasting. If a coalition were formed and held together until the loan was successfully floated, that is as long as we can expect. Indeed, we could hardly wish it to last longer, for although Mr. De Valera has receded a long way from his extreme threats to the Treaty, there could not be a very solid basis of co-operation between the. parties.
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