SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 77, 2 April 1910, Page 12

SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

(For week ending Saturday, 12th Feb.) IRELAND AND THE GOVERNMENT. Optimist Liberals havo been saying during the week that the Nationalists are perfectly tame and will give them no trouble Very posj-ibly they would like to be tamo and to givo no trouble, but the difficulty is that they dare not. As far as we can read the signs, the situation is this. The Government to live must get the Budget through and unaltered. But there is a clear majority in the House of Commons against the Budget if the Nationalists vote upon th«ir personal convictions, and, what is more, according to the very loudly expressed wishes of their constituents and of Ireland as v whole. The only ground upon which tho Nationalists will bo allowed by Irish public opinion to vote for the Budget is a public and unconditional pledge by the Government that a Home-rulo Bill of a very far-reaching kind shall bo introduced at one«, und assurances given that it will be pressed on to an issue these assurances to include the immediate deprivation of the House of Lords of its power of veto, not only over finance, but over ordinary legislation. The Irish, know very well that if Home Rule is promised to them only after the enormous amount of negotiation and discussion which must result from a iarreaching" scheme for the reconstruction of a Second Chamber, Homo Rulo will be indefinitely postponed. T.hey can, m fact, only support the Government if they can be assured that ''Home Rule" and not "A Reformed Second' Chamber"' is to hold the political stage. CONFLICTING ISSUES. Even if the Government were willing to do what tho Irish ask — that is, to t*ttle the Lords question in no tense on its merits, but merely as an incident in tho triumphal progress of Homo Rulo — they would iail in tho attempt. Neither the majority of their supporters in Parliament nor the country as a whole would dream of consenting to give this preference to lieJand, and to make the present Parliament nothing but au instrument for destroying the Union. If, then, the Government have to depend upon the Irish to keep them in power, and the Irish Parly remain, as they declare they nuibt, in their present mood, the Government cannot retain office by their aid. The only other way by which tho present Cabinet can carry on will be for them to rely upon, we will not say the support 01, but an honourable understanding with Mr. Balfour und the Unionists— an understanding that Unionists will not turn them out by any form of cooperation with tho Nationalists. That Mr. Balfour and the great bulk of his followers will in principle be perfectly willing to prevent tho Government from being destroyed by the Irish we do not doubt, but nevertheless the difficukicr of carrying such a principle into practice are extraordinarily great. Those difficulties rest upon the fact that there is a majority in the new House of Commons against, and strongly against, the Budget. And yet tho situation has so shaped iteelf that it is a political necessity that tho Budget shall at once be passed through Parliament. THE FRANCHISE IN PRUSSIA. The Franchise Amendment Bill, laid before the representatives of the Prussian people on Thursday, is in no sense of the word a genuine measure of reform. Although abolishing tho indirect method of election by secondary voters, the Bill maintains the principle of open voting, and it scorns unlikely that the modifications in the composition of tho first and second clase«* of voterß will seriously utfeet the working of a system which ib bafred primarily on wealth. Again, no mention is mad« of redistribution, though tho industrial centres- are ludicrously under-represented. A comparison with the other States shows that Prussia,- though tho largest, industrially the most important, and the most powerful in voting power in the Federal Council of all the States in the German Empire, lags far behind them in electoral freedom. As The Times points out in a striking article, the curious anomaly that a citizen of Prussia should not posices the same rights in electing representatives to bin own legislative body us he possesses ia the choice of a Deputy to the Reichstag is met by the official answer that such a cystem is incompatible with the welfare of Prussia — i.e., the predominance of tho Agrarian interest. TO CHECK THK TRUSTS. Mr. Taft's Federal incorporation measure for dealing with Trusts was introduced in Congress on Monday. The Washington conecpondent of 'Ihe Timci says that it enables corporations to take out a- Federal charter, by which they would submit themselves to tho Bureau of Corporations and to various strict regulations, 'ihey would be hubject to the Sherman Law, and though authorised to acquire propotfy, they would bo debarred from acquiring tho stock of other corporations. It is hoped that they would thus be prevented from manipuls*ting stock on a grand scale in the manner of the late Mr. Harriman, whilo a normal corporate control would still be possible*. The measure is obviously the most radical attempt which ha« been made since the Sherman Act to bring Trusts under Federal control. Xo doubt the forces which have so long fought under the banner of Stato Rights will be mobilised once more, and* centralisation will be denounced. In one sense the Trusts might gain something by this legul unification ; but we suspect that there wilt be a long conflict beforo any such mature as Mr. Tuft proposes can become law. IRISH PARTIES. Mr. William O'Brien has a long letter in Monday'u Daily Telegraph on the Irish. Parties. For himself, h« disclaims any thoughts of leadership, and does not even know what is meant by the term Independent Nationalist. Three weeks before tho dissolution be was at Florence, and had not opened an Irish paper for nine months, when he learned of the plot . to expel Mr. Maurice Healy from Cork. "It was solely with a view of saving my friends in Cork from extermination tmh I returned to Ireland." Mr. O'Brien then describes the methods and tactics of In; opponents, and declares that they ««o all directed by a Standing Committee in Dublin who completely control j kd the funds of Ui« United Irish Lengue, and are in the majority of cases "initiated members-" of the schismatic "Board of ii " wing of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a secret society whose*ralesexclude Irish Protestants. The rewilt o! th* elections is that "the once rightly named Irish Party "returns more completely discomfited than any other Parliamentary party." He adduces evidence to disprove the charge that his .nucces* wan duo to Protestant votes, wWUe cordially acknowledging Protestant goodwiil.

At the annual meeting of the Wellington Drivers' Union, held on Wednesday, the following officn* wcro elected for the crnming year : — President, A. Pnrlane; vice-president", W. Jone.", F. Ward, and F. Drrvcr ; management committee, A. Elliott, C. Cliaret, A. Benaon, M. Bulliv»n, M. Condor, J. Jop-