proved to be the first step toward saving the bill. The London Times (conservative) charged Mr. Balfour's sacrifice of the amendments to bad management; The Standard (also conservative) advised the government to drop the bill. It is a political fashion at this session to attribute anything startling to Mr. Chamberlain: it is not known whether there was any foundation for a prevalent

theory that the responsible cause for the withdrawal was Mr. Chamberlain's

Sir

support of T. W. Russell, Ulster unionist leader, in his strong criticism of the amendments. William Harcourt found the occasion available for one of his brilliant speeches denouncing the government for gross. mismanagement. Mr. Chamberlain responded vigorously in its defense.

On July 20 the government, finding urgency necessary, procured the passing of a motion (299 votes to 106) allowing allnight sessions. On

July 22 the government was defeated (99 to 86) on a minor clause of the bill. On July 24, the house of commons discussed the bill through the night, and, after passing it through the committee stage, adjourned at 5.25 A. M. On July 29 the bill-vigorously attacked as unjust to the landlords in speeches by two conservative Irish landlords, and very mildly defended by two Irish members as ameliorating in a small degree the condition of Irish tenants-was passed to its third rea ding without a division. In the lords, as in the commons, the bitterest opponents of this measure of a conservative government were leading tories: some amendments were carried against the government. On August 10 the bill

passed its third reading, with amendments which necessitated its return to the commons. The debate and the mutilated bill which resulted, were regarded as equivalent to a government defeat, as damaging to the conservative party, and even as endangering the tenure of office of some members of the administration, notably Mr. Balfour. But the officials showed no special concern. Lord Salisbury took no part in the debate. Lord Rosebery and many liberal peers upheld the ministry. On August 12 the lower house reamended the bill, and in this form it was passed by the lords the next day, and became lawthe peers relieving the situation by their concessions. The same day parliament was prorogued.

The session as a whole, though orderly, disappointed the country and lessened the credit of the ministry. With their great majority they accomplished very little, and that little offended many of their supporters. They laid themselves open to the charge of being injudicious in framing bills, incautious in parliamentary strategy, compromising in concessions first on one side, then on the other, and grossly lacking in assiduity and attention to business. However, the great conservative alliance cannot yet be said to be in any danger.

Two features of this parliament are significant and surprising: that the lords showed themselves less readily controlled by the ministry than are the commons; and that a conservative government was found upholding the lower house against the upper.

Proposed Legislation for Ireland.-While the government is not expected to touch at present (perhaps not till 1901) the readjustment, and lessening, of the representation of Ireland in parliament, they are reported to be preparing now a bill for a new system of local administration within that island.

Lord Rosebery's Resignation.-On October 6 the Earl of Rosebery resigned the leadership of the liberal party, in a letter characterized by directness and dignity. Though the occasion for this step was found in the intensity of the demand for intervention in behalf of Armenia, recently developed in a portion of the liberal party, its causes were various and of earlier origin and far larger scope. Lord Rosebery calls attention to his diversity of views from those of the large portion of the liberal party who are demanding forcible intervention to stop the Turkish atrocities, and who have on their side Mr. Gladstone's "matchless authority." This difference leaves

Lord Rosebery without "explicit support." He makes no complaint of this, but regards it as indicating that it is best for the party and for himself that he should be free to speak and the party free to act.

Lord Rosebery's retirement calls forth no blame; and, though unexpected at this time, it occasions little surprise. His leadership has for some months been merely nominal. His genial spirit, his unselfish and patriotic motive, his sincerity as a leader, his intellectual force, and his brilliancy and effectiveness in public address, all are appreciated and admired. But the impression in a few minds at the start that, as the liberal leader, he would be a good man out of his place, is thought to have become quite general in the party. Not only was he a peer of the realm doing a work specifically appropriate to a commoner; the earl was also of a nature that does not take itself, a party, or the world, with much show of seriousness; whereas his party, at least just now, must take itself and all affairs quite seriously, or else take itself off the field. It was a case of misfit, with no blame to the earl, and many thanks for his kind and able service. The question of succession belongs in the next quarter: the logical and almost inevitable successor is Sir William Harcourt, who, as a parliamentary leader, has probably no superior in the British Isles.

Irish Affairs.-Besides the enactment of the Irish land law in parliament, the chief topics of Irish interest during the quarter are here noted.

Irish Race Convention.-At Dublin, on September 1, 2,000 representatives of the Irish race from various parts of the world met in a three days' convention to formulate a platform on which all Irish factions could stand together and act unitedly for Irish home rule. Justin McCarthy, M. P., called the convention to order; and, on his nomination, the Rt. Rev. Patrick O'Donnell, Roman Catholic bishop of Raphoe, was chosen permanent chairman. telegram was read from the Pope expressing his hope for cessation of the differences among the Irish factions. Eloquent speeches were made, urging union under the rule of the majority. Among the speakers were Hon. Edward Blake, M. P., John Dillon, M. P. (leader of the Irish parliamentary party), Michael Davitt, T. P. O'Connor, William O'Brien, and Justin McCarthy. The convention effected little in quelling dissension. It was largely in the hands of the Dillonite faction (anti-Parnellite), and its most noticeable effect was its virtual recognition of that

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as the true Irish party. Consequently Mr. Redmond and his Parnellites, and Mr. Healy and his followers, have denounced it as partisan in its spirit, and as designed chiefly to stimulate the lessening flow of money from abroad. Its record shows no attempt to probe the causes of the fierce antagonism, nor any suggestion of a remedy. Its effect does not promise to be helpful to the home-rule cause. Irish Dynamite Conspirators.-About the end of August the British government released from jail four of the dynamiters who had been convicted in 1883 of treason-felony. They had been connected with the making and using of explosives for blowing up buildings in London, and had been sentenced to imprisonment for life. The four were Thomas Devaney, John Daly, Albert George Whitehead, and Dr. Thomas Gallagher, formerly of Brooklyn, N. Y. All were in feeble health, and all except John Daly were showing signs of insanity. Se

vere attacks on the government for this release, by some conservative members of the house of commons, called forth an official explanation that it was based entirely on a medical report that longer confinement would be fatal to the prisoners.

The arrest of another set of four dynamite conspirators in France, Scotland, and the Netherlands, on Septem-. ber 12 and 13, supplied the newspapers of Europe and America with a highly sensational topic. One of the four was Patrick J. Tynan (arrested at Boulogne, France), whom the police had been tracking for fourteen years as the notorious and mysterious "No. 1," the head of the atrocious Fenian plot which wrought the murder of Lord

Frederick Cavendish and Mr. T. H. Burke in Phoenix park, Dublin, in May, 1882. A reward of £5,000 had been offered at that time for his apprehension. Papers found on the other three prisoners showed them to be in communication with Tynan, who had been traced as arriving in August from New York: they were also shown to be connected with the secret manufacture of explosives in the suburbs of Antwerp, and

to have infernal machines in their possession. All the men had been "shadowed" by English detectives.

Wild and startling rumors almost immediately filled the air. The London detectives had for some time believed that a Fenian plot for dynamite outrages in Great Britain was being concocted in the United States. Police reports from Glasgow, where Edward Bell, one of the four men in custody had been arrested, enlarged the Irish plot BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE. into an intercontinental combination of Fenians, Russian nihilists in the United States, and anarchists in various countries, to introduce a reign of terror with London as its first centre. The visit of the czar of Russia to Queen Victoria was to be availed of for their destruction with that of the British royal family by dynamite explosion, either at London or at Balmoral castle.

SIR EDMUND MONSON,

Very soon, however, this wondrous story began to be clouded with doubt. Tynan's relations declared that he was not "No. 1." Men who had known him in New York reported that he was too much given to drink, and to loud talk in public places about the terrible things that he would do, to be the man selected for such a desperate enterprise. Observers of Russian nihilism declared that nihilists and the Irish revolutionists had nothing in common either in theories or in methods. Anarchists are known to avoid concert, and to act as individuals. There was even a rumor that Tynan was merely a stool-pigeon of the English police. The general opinion thus far tends to discredit a large part of the current rumors, finding little definitely proved beyond the fact of a clumsy and mismanaged dynamite plot involving a few Irish-Americans, whose chief object may have been to make a basis for ap