We have no means of testing these rumours, but the
Daily Telegraph has often proved to have access to special sources of political information. If the inner Cabinet have privately determined to dissolve before the third time of asking of the Home Rule Bill, as we believe they have, it might be convenient to have a new Irish Secretary. We do not suppose that Mr. Birrell, who knows the facts, is particularly anxious for the job of coercing Ulster without the direct mandate of the people for doing so, or that he would object on principle to a dissolution before rather than after the Bill had become law. At the same time we can well understand that he might wish to leave the Irish Office if a change of policy were announced in regard to the date of dissolution. He would thus avoid explanations with Mr. Redmond.
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