Mr. John Redmond made a highly significant and menacing speech
on Wednesday at Newcastle. Sir Edward Grey's speech foreshadowed the throwing away of the most powerful weapon they possessed. It meant that they were quite willing to loosen their grip on the veto in the House of Commons before they knew whether they could get guarantees that that veto would be carried into law. Speaking for the Irish Party, Mr. Redmond declared that the policy of letting go their grip on the Budget before they knew what was going to happen about the veto was a "false and rotten policy" which the Irish Party could not uphold. He - then proceeded to make the following offer On behalf of the Irish Party I offer in the House of Commons to accept the Budget in one hour to-morrow, any day it is brought forward, without the change of one comma, so long as we have the assurance that the Government would be able effectively to deal with the veto of the House of Lords, and we believe that if they cannot deal effectively with the veto of the House of Lords in this Session, or in this Parliament, it would be madness to mitigate in any one way the acuteness of the crisis which has been caused by the unconstitutional action of the House of Lords. If an immediate General Election ensued, we need not be afraid of it." Mr. Redmond, we may note, remarked earlier in the day that he was perfectly sure there would be a General Election in a few weeks' time. As the continuance in office of the Government depends mainly on Mr. Redmond, the omens now point to an Election in May.
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