UNIONISTS AND LIBERALS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 807, 3 February 1910, Page 2

UNIONISTS AND LIBERALS.

Thk question has been asked why the Conservatives are termed “ Unionists ” in the lists of candidates for the various seats. Possibly some explanation is needed by the younger generation, though no doubt there are many who well remember the stir and bitterness caused when the Unionists came into being. It was on the Irish question, in 18S5, and there was a strong movement for a separate Government for Ireland, the Liberals and Nationalists having a majority of 166 in the House— Liberals 331, Nationalists 82, Conservatives 247. Mr Joseph Chamberlain was one of the strongest members of the Liberal party, but was invincibly opposed to the views of the Nationalists of that day, who would be satisfied with nothing less than Irish independence. Mr Chamberlain, at the critical moment, withdrew from the Gladstone Liberals, formed a party which he called the ‘ ‘ Liberal Unionists,” and joined the Conservatives, who ousted the Liberal parly in ISSS, and put an end to the chances of Home Rule up to the present. The Liberal Unionists brought 81 members to the aid of the Conservatives, and all their influence, with the result that the Conservative numbers increased to 314, which, with the Si Liberal Unionists, gave them a total of 395. The Liberals, by this great defection, were reduced to 11S, and, with S 4 Nationalists, only opposed 272 to the Conservatives’ 395, and found themselves In a minority of 123. Since that time the Liberal Unionists have practically become out and out Conservatives, but the designation Unionist as against the Home Rule agitation is so popularly used in election fights that the term, which was at first only applied to Mr Chamberlain’s following, is now indiscriminately used to denote the whole Conservative party.