KR. STEPHEN GWYNN AND MR. PATRICK FORD. [To MR EDITOR
OP THE " SPECTATOR.,
Sra,—I am sorry to trouble you further with a controversy into which, by no wish of mine, my name has been brought. But since your correspondent "X." cannot understand the gist of my last letter, let me make it plain to your readers.
"I." says that he is a Home-ruler, but must dissociate himself from Mr. Redmond's following because we accept help from Mr. Patrick Ford, who twenty years ago advocated the use of dynamite. "X." now gives in his adherence to the All- for-Ireland League, whose chief figure is Mr. William O'Brien. Now I have shown that Mr. O'Brien 'not merely took help from Mr. Ford, and thanked him for it, but that even in his later political development, when be had retired from the Irish Party, Mr. O'Brien emphatically and eloquently justified the presence of Mr. Ford in the Constitutional movement. " X.'s " leader of to-day stands precisely upon this matter where Mr. Redmond and the rest of us do. He welcomes the presence in the Con- stitutional movement of a man whom that movement has drawn away from the extremists. And since "X." is by way of knowing America, he must be perfectly well aware that if Mr. O'Brien went to America to preach the All-for-Ireland League, he would find support only in the Clan-na-G ael,— because the remnants of the physical force party recognise that the serious obstacle to their influence is the strength of the Constitutional movement. They would support him as a wrecking policy.
I confess that " X.'s" protestations on this matter seem to me so entirely insincere that I personally draw the inference that his object is not so much to advance Home-rule as to damage the prestige of the Nationalist Party. And I confess also that I cannot see the inconsistency with which he charges me. Mr. O'Brien five years ago described Mr. Ford as a man who had done much to remove illwill from between England and America,—that is, as an extremist who had fallen into line with the moderates. When I cite that view and endorse it respectfully, it seems to me that I give a fresh proof of Mr. O'Brien's insane folly of to-day. For insane folly it is to describe Patrick Ford as a peacemaker, and then tell the Protestants of Ireland that their liberties are imperilled by the influence of Mr. Devlin.
Lord Dunraven mars his recent appeal to the Unionists of the North by an unworthy attempt to rake up this feeling, —or, rather, to pretend to Englishmen that Irish Protestants are really in dread of what he calls the secret sectarian organisation that is supposed to dominate our politics. Let me state two significant facts. The electorates of Derry City and West Belfast are very similar; in each there is a small majority of Protestants on the register. In Derry Mr. Shane Leslie, a very brilliant young man, eon of an old and well- known county family, and in no way connected with the Order of Hibernians, was the candidate. He got less than fifty Protestant votes. In West Belfast Mr. Devlin, the head of the Ancient Order, the target of all the bitterest abuse, was returned by a majority of nearly six hundred, and must therefore have got over five hundred Protestant votes,— which in Ulster is portentous. The truth is that Ulster Unionists arc neither deterred by fear of "Molly Maguires " nor greatly attracted by those qualifications which would have made of Mr. Leslie a typical " All-for-Ireland " candidate,— had he not possessed enough courage and consistency to support the Home-rule cause in the only way by which it can be efficiently supported.—I am, Sir,
STEPHEN GWYNN.
• [Though the decision is not quite fair to "X.," we cannot devote any more of our space to this correspondence. We must point out, however, that Mr. Ford's patronage of dynamite is not, as Mr. Gwynn tries to believe, something abandoned twenty years ago. As our correspondent Mr. P. G. Cambray reminded us on October 22nd, the Irish World of June 8th. 1907, contained an article by Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet in defence of the use of dynamite in Ireland. To it Mr. Patrick Ford added this significant comment :— "I am in entire agreement with the views expressed and the conclusions reached by Dr. Emmet ; but like Dr. Emmet himself, I am also in sympathy with the United Irish League and the Irish Parliamentary Party, so admirably led by Mr. John Redmond."
—ED. Spectator.'
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