THE "DEAL ' WITH THE NATIONALISTS.
rTo THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR?']
Sin,—The Prime Minister has apparently forgotten his law. When he stated in the House that there was no bargain between the Government and the Irish Nationalists he over- looked the well-known rule that a contract of sale "may be implied from the conduct of the parties." Mr. Redmond in Dublin publicly stated the terms on which he offered the Nationalist vote in favour of the Budget. Mr. Asquith in the House of Commons publicly acceded to those terms. No Court would hesitate to find that a contract bad been con- cluded between the parties, though presumably it would hold that the contract was void as being founded on an immoral consideration. The result of the Government surrender to the demands of the Nationalists and Labour Party is a degrading situation. The Cabinet may rule, but it does not govern. We are governed by two gangs of paid and pledge-bound politicians, who are manipulated by wire- pullers from without. The people who pay the piper call the tune. The Nationalists are openly subsidised by Patrick Ford of dynamite celebrity. Can any one imagine a party in the French Chamber openly subsidised by the enemies of France in Germany ? Can any one imagine a party in the Reichstag openly subsidised by malcontents from Alsace- Lorraine? Yet our Radicals hail with delight the con- temptuous support they have bought from Mr. Redmond. In the House of Commons the Labour-Socialist Party often speak with a spurious moderation. Their true aims are to be judged from their utterances in the Trade-Union Congress and when stumping the country. They then attack property, marriage, and every institution on which civilised society is founded.—I am, Sir, &a.,
A UNIONIST FEES-TRADER.
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