Mr. Redmond has justified the expectations expressed in these columns
last week. In a letter addressed to each member of the Irish party, and published in Monday's Free- man's Journal, he admits that their abstention has been mis- understood by "very many sincere friends of the national cause, and especially by the Irish Bishops, who, of course, on a question of this kind have a special right to have their views listened to with the deepest respect." As matters now stand, the only remaining danger to the Education Bill is in the House of Lords, where it may either be injured or improved. "In either case, the presence of the Irish Members in the House of Commons, when the measure returns to that assembly, may be of real importance. For these reasons, and in deference to the strong views expressed by the Irish hierarchy on a subject upon which they have a special right to speak with authority," Mr. Redmond asks the members of his party to hold themselves in readiness to come to London on receipt of a telegraphic "whip." In other words, Mr. Redmond, following the lead of the Freeman's Journal, has gone back on Mr. William O'Brien, and sur- rendered, horse and foot, to Archbishop Walsh.
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