THE IRISH PARTY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2122, 13 February 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE IRISH PARTY.

Say> an American paper : — The writer in the Daily Telegraph strucK the key note of the present situation of affairs in British politics when he said : " To-day we start at a mere shadow, caat by eighty-six Irishmen on the floor of the House of Commons. Surely old England has nerve to face realities ten times more portentous." If there is anything real in this Irish question, let ie be got at now and settled forever ; but there should be no more half-way measures, uo more placating of ignorant truculeucy. If the movement headed by Mr Parnell, tbo friend of the assassin, means Irish nationality — a distinct and complete separation from the English Empire — then let the leaders and thu people of the British Empire take counsel together, and decide as whether they are willing to accede to such a proceeding. If they are, then let the separation take place at once ami the Irish question be nettled. If they urc not willing to allow such a proceeding, then let their unwillingness be nnuouueeti nu<l the shadow of those eighty-six associates of the assavoiu'a friend be d liven out of a Parliament whose oath of otiice they can only take by committing perjury. If the deairea of the movement headed by Mr Parnell do not go quite so far as absolute and complete separation from the Empire, then its limits should be accurately ascertained, and, if they can, without doing violence to good government, be submitted to, then let the submission take place and the Irish question by settled. It would seem to be the part of good policy for British statesmen to draw this Irish question out of the noisy dark in which it is hidden, aud ascertain what manner of thing it is. But, above all things, the representatives of a great nation should get over the fright which seems to have been inspired by the shadows of eighty six Irishmen— many of them of the flannel-mouth stripe— on the floor of the House of Commons.