NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Sinn Fein Parliament, when we write on Thursday, has not yet come-to any decision about the Settlement. Very likely the result of the long and strange debate will be known before these words are published, but there are at present no sure signs of what that result will be. At first it was assumed that the Treaty would be quickly ratified by a considerable majority, but the lapse of time has brought with it many doubts. The proceedings of the Dail Eireann have certainly not been impressive. There have been breaks in the irregular course of the debate, and the gaps have been filled in with secret sessions. Why a Parliament should hold secret sessions we cannot imagine. But the most irregular thing of all has been the attitude of Mr. De Valera, who has been everything by turns and nothing long. At one moment he has been the President of the Republic, exercising a personal prerogative to make an incursion into the Legislative Assembly ; at another moment he has usurped the functions of the Speaker ; at another he has been Prime Minister ; at another he has been leader of the Opposition ; and at yet another a private member of the back benches.
