THE OPINION OF Tab GALLERIES.
[To TICE EDITOR OF THE " SPECELTOE.1 SIR,--At Washington, where no vote can turn a Government or a Congress out before its appointed time, political meteorologists are wont to study the opinion of the galleries. It is upon these galleries that coming events cast their vast shadows. And as cable rates are reduced, and vaster, faster ships shuttle to and fro weaving the political web more and more rapidly, the opinion of the galleries at Washington may some day become the opinion of the civilised world. I have been much at Washington in the•past quarter of a century, and until to-day the man in the gallery there has never shown any real interest in the lobby at Westminster. " What do we care for abroad ! " was the historic protest of the Missouri Congress- man. But to-day the position is extremely interesting. The theory of land nationalisation advocated here thirty years ago was then fairly argued out and snuffed out. I recall that the whole of George's "Progress and Poverty" was read by zealous partisans into the Congressional Record, and thus, under "frank," distributed free all over this continent. "Real estate " is the great medium here of speculation; some men buy and their margin is wiped out, others " scalp " a nice profit over and above interest and commission ; but the idea of a Government gobbling a 20 per cent. commission when there is any profit and leaving losses to the speculator has appealed even more to the sense of humour than to the ethics of the gallery gentleman. Why, he says, be content with 20 per cent.? Why not take all the profit of the game ?
But the opinion of the gallery has most of all gone against Mr. John Redmond; this is really important, because it is quite certain that his subscription-list here will not again fill. It is a common mistake to suppose that the funds for the Nationalist Party have come from the " Irish servant- girls." The small remitters send their postal orders with a splendid generosity, but to their relatives and friends. The funds that very popular missioner, Mr. T. P. O'Connor, returned with last year represented only a few handsome donations from wealthy Irishmen. The wealthy Irishman, who has now rather late in the day discovered the log-rolling between " Nationalists " and Socialists, the alliance of Mr. Redmond and Mr. Keir Hardie, is aghast at what he has done. "What," says he, "is about to happen at Washington if precedents for Socialist and predatory legislation are to come to us overseas from the very 'Mother of Parliaments,' from sensible, sober England ? Are we, rid, Westminster, to exhume Henry George ? " Again, there is, I think, here in this most imaginative of nations a real affection for our Constitution. As Macaulay said, "it stands august and immovable while Nations and Dynasties lie wrecked about it." In all this world of change it alone has stood out a landmark for the ages. Is the British Constitution also to subside like the Campanile ? Nay, is an Irish " boss " to discover an edifice so stately and say : " Lo ! let us burn it, for perhaps there may be a pig within for the roasting " ? And the Hibernia; of it all,—that because the Lords have thrown out a Budget admittedly poisonous to Ireland, there- fore let us end them. The writer has been an ardent Home- ruler all his days, and as a pious opinion Home-rule must still survive ; but when Mr. Redmond knifed the very best friend Ireland ever had at the bidding of some Orange claqueurs my sympathies cooled ; and now that the Lords at their infinite risk have done their very best for Ireland, and with a fresh ingratitude the official leader is taking Patrick Ford's dollars to destroy them, my Home-rule mercury stands about zero. I incline to agree with the opinion of the galleries here, if only one is to survive better the Chamber of Notables than the Chamber of Nobodies.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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