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so much that when the general election approached Mr. O'Brien felt himself strong enough to attempt, through its agency, to acquire control over the whole of the Nationalist representation of the country, to the exclusion of all those to whom his leadership and his aims or his methods were uncongenial. Of such was not Mr. John Redmond, the titular leader of the reunited Irish parliamentary party, who during the year became curiously submissive to Mr. O'Brien. The recalcitrants were Mr. Healy and his immediate following, and the word went forth that they were to be cast out. Mr. O'Brien himself fought Cork city against Mr. Maurice Healy, and was victorious by a very large majority. In Mr. Healy's constituency-LouthMr. O'Brien appeared and made strenuous attempts to discredit him, which failed; but though Mr. Healy was able to retain his own seat hardly any of his adherents secured re-election, and to all outward appearance the general election resulted in the return to Westminster of eighty-one Nationalists, nearly all of whom were pledged to take their orders from Mr. O'Brien. To further strengthen his position, Mr. O'Brien began arranging a National Convention to be held in Dublin (Dec. 10). The constitution of this body was so devised that while it allowed a certain modicum of representation to all sufficiently Nationalist Municipal Councils, yet a clear and substantial majority of the seats was left in the convention to delegates of the branches of the United Irish League. The only practical business of any importance to be brought before the convention was the exclusion of Mr. Healy from the Irish parliamentary party. So anxious was Mr. O'Brien to get this done that when the special session of Parliament was announced for a date which made it certain to last over that fixed for the convention in Dublin, he determined, with the concurrence of Mr. Redmond, that the session should be ignored by the Irish Members. An appeal, not to say edict, to that effect was issued to the newly elected Nationalist Members, and was obeyed by all except Mr. Healy. While he was at Westminster the Nationalist Convention met in Dublin and passed sentence of exclusion upon him and Mr. J. L. Carew. The resolution to that effect, moved by Mr. W. O'Brien and spoken to by Mr. Dillon, was carried by an overwhelming majority, despite a strenuous opposing speech from Mr. T. Harrington, M.P., and a statement from the chairman, Mr. Redmond, that he distinctly disapproved of it, though he was prepared to bow to the verdict of the convention. O'Brien's triumph thus appeared to be complete, but some doubt was thrown on the extent to which he might be able to utilise it by the fact that in the last days of the year it was announced that the state of his health required that he should leave the country.

Mr.

Meanwhile, on two distinct lines of cleavage the "union of the Unionist party" in Ireland had become seriously impaired. A considerable section of the Irish landlords and the classes con

nected with or dependent on them bitterly resented the land legislation of the Unionist Government, under which many of them held that the injustice and hardship previously inflicted by Gladstonian measures on the proprietary had been not only continued but enhanced. To them the Tithe Rent Charge Bill, passed in the ordinary session of 1900, seemed, though good in its way, but a trifling instalment of the consideration due to them on account of their existing, to say nothing of their past, wrongs. They were equally or even more indignant at the temper in which Irish administration was carried on under the ChiefSecretaryship of Mr. Gerald Balfour. On the one hand they made bitter complaint at the failure of the executive to take any adequate steps for checking the growth of what they described as a dangerous and criminal system of intimidation under the auspices of the United Irish League. On the other hand, they resented the determination shown by the Irish Government to ignore party politics and creeds in their selections for administrative posts. This feeling applied particularly to appointments made in connection with the new Agriculture and Industries Department, of which Mr. Horace Plunkett had been made Vice-President, and above all to the choice of Mr. T. P. Gill as secretary to that department. Mr. Gill had been actively and publicly connected in 1887 with the Plan of Campaign a scheme of organisation which received judicial condemnation, in strong language-and he had never made any public acknowledgement of error in regard to his agrarian record. The general election afforded an opportunity to sore and indignant Unionists for the infliction of some punishment upon the Government. The Chief Secretary, sitting for Central Leeds, could not conveniently be reached; but Mr. Horace Plunkett's seat for South Dublin County was assailable. An organisation, headed socially and financially by Lord Ardilaun, and intellectually by Professor Dowden, was formed, and Mr. Plunkett having refused to give up the seat on their demand Mr. Elrington Ball was started as an independent Unionist candidate. This proceeding obviously involved a gift of the representation of the constituency to the Nationalists, but that did not trouble Lord Ardilaun and his friends. Mr. Atkinson, the Irish Solicitor-General, in the course of some very vigorous speeches in support of Mr. Plunkett, adduced agrarian statistics which appeared to show clearly that the executive had been giving satisfactory protection to order and individual liberty. Mr. Plunkett, who vindicated his administration with spirit and good temper, was able to say that Mr. Gill no longer defended the morality of the Plan of Campaign. But it was all to no effect. A Nationalist candidate (Mr. Mooney) having been started, Mr. Plunkett, whose Unionism had been condemned as tepid, disclaimed any right to the votes of those from whom in politics he fundamentally dissented. The figures of the polling were Mr. J. Mooney (N.), 3,668; Mr. Plunkett, 2,854, and

Mr. Ball, 1,533—the joint majority of the two defeated Unionists over the successful Nationalist being 719. Dissensions among Unionists also caused their loss of the St. Stephen's Green division of Dublin City. On the other hand was to be set the surprise of the Hon. Martin Morris' election for Galway City, and the recovery of Derry City for the Unionists by the Marquess of Hamilton, whose father, the Duke of Abercorn, head of Ulster Unionism and president of the Irish Landowners' Convention, took occasion to express his entire disapprobation of the attack on Mr. Plunkett, a feeling which he said was shared by many members of the convention. The Ulster Liberal Unionists, during the progress of the general election, declared their strong appreciation of the value of Mr. Plunkett's public services in connection with the Agriculture and Industries Department, as well as with the movement which led to its establishment, and also their cordial general approval of Mr. Gerald Balfour's administration. No Unionist seats were lost in Ulster, but it was believed that two, which might have been gained in Tyrone on the showing of the register, were lost through abstentions due to divisions, and in several other constituencies there were rival Unionist candidates. The lines of cleavage appeared to be mainly between the supposed interests of the landlord and tenant classes, and to some extent between Episcopalians and Presbyterians. The acuteness of the former divergence was partly illustrated and partly promoted by the action of Mr. T. W. Russell, in a speech at Clogher (Sept. 20) at the outset of his electoral campaign for North Tyrone, for which constituency he was again returned. He there made an emphatic declaration of his belief in the necessity of the universal and compulsory expropriation of the Irish landlords, asserting that all confidence in the administration of the land courts had disappeared, and that peace, stability and justice could only be secured by the conversion of the tenants into an occupying proprietary. He propounded an elaborate scheme by which, as he maintained, this could be done without risk of loss to the State or hardship to the landlords, and suggested 120,000,000l. sterling as a figure which might meet the necessities of the case. In view of this speech the Prime Minister intimated that in existing circumstances the Government were quite unable to see their way to the adoption of the policy insisted on by the member for North Tyrone, and in the reconstruction of the Ministry he was removed from his post of Secretary to the Local Government Board. Several, perhaps most, of the Ulster Unionist candidates gave their adhesion to the principle of universal compulsory purchase. But they did so, frequently, in more or less hypothetical terms, and few, if any, of those who were elected were ready to join Mr. Russell in the campaign which he had undertaken for pressing the immediate adoption of that policy on the Government; nor did they welcome the prospect of his appearing in their constituencies to advocate it.

The Ulster linen trade during 1900 was subject to serious fluctuations in its prosperity. The year opened well for that important industry, and for several months the conditions continued favourable. In the summer and autumn the trade relapsed into a depressed and unremunerative condition, but at the end of the year there were many signs of recovery. The great shipbuilding industry of Belfast had a signally prosperous year, the total gross tonnage turned out by the two local firms amounting to more than 120,000, as compared with 45,000 in 1899 and 53,000 in 1898. The progress of agricultural cooperation continued to exercise a most favourable influence on the butter trade in respect of the amount produced and sold. There was, however, a good deal of discussion among experts on the question whether the cattle trade had not suffered in connection with the creamery system.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

FRANCE AND ITALY.

I. FRANCE.

It was recognised in advance that the year of the International Exhibition at Paris should be regarded as a political truce between all parties. This intention was not wholly realised, for it was scarcely possible that passions so sedulously excited should calm down in a few months. It was also only natural to suppose that more than one vigorous attempt would be made to deprive the Government of Republican defence of the privilege of presiding at the great universal kermesse. The numerous ceremonies, congresses and Pantagruelic banquets which were announced would necessarily attract people from all parts of the country, and would do much to facilitate propagandism by the extremists on both sides. Consequently political struggles were for a while keener than ever. Nevertheless, the year was destined to end far more peacefully than the earlier days of the session promised.

The High Court of Justice, after forty-seven sittings which were needed to unravel the plot against the safety of the State, delivered its verdict (Jan. 4), but it was scarcely to the liking of the friends of the Government. M. Paul Déroulède and M. André Buffet were condemned to ten years' banishment; M. Jules Guérin to ten years' imprisonment, while M. de LurSaluces, who had escaped, received in his absence a similar sentence to that on the two first named who were conveyed to the Belgian frontier, while the defender of the legendary Fort Chabrol was confined at Clairvaux. The senators were in a hurry to get away to their respective departments, in a third of which they had to face the risks of re-election. The Nationalist party determined to use all means in its power to punish the more active members of the High Court for their resolute attitude. Some of the measures employed, however, were not happily imagined. For instance, ridicule rather than respect was roused by the protest against the judgment of the High Court made by some of the jury of the assize court which had

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