At a meeting of the Nationalist Members, held on Tuesday
in Committee Room 16, Mr. John Redmond was elected chairman of the reunited Irish party. Mr. Harrington, who has taken a leading part in effecting the reconciliation of the discordant sections, was in the chair, and sixty-five members were present. For the moment this is undoubtedly a triumph for the Parnellites, but the permanent reconsolida- tion of the Nationalist party calls for qualities which, in spite of all his ability, Mr. John Redmond has not hitherto displayed. In any case we welcome the patriotic declaration of the Westminster Gazette that the attitude of the Nationalists in regard to the war has finally and necessarily shattered the affiance between the Liberal party and the Nationalists. Tee cleavage was strikingly illustrated by the speech in which Captain Norton, an Irishman, a Radical, and a Home Ruler, in the course of Tuesday's debate, urged on the Government the paramount need for taking the strongest steps to meet possible interference by other Powers whenever the war assumed a certain phase. In his opinion, he went on to observe, those Powers ought to have nothing to say as to the settlement in South Africa.
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