New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4609, 29 December 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29.

Ix is now some years since people at this side of the .world began to hear of what is known as the "Home Rule" party in the British House of Commons, and from the time the members of that party began to be.heard of they have not invariably been written of in terms of respect or in any spirit of expectation regarding their influence for good or harm. But a perusal of the leading English papers received by the last mail shows that some important developments in connection with the Home Rulers have taken place, which have attracted an attention for them in England, and lent them an importance to which they were hitherto, whether deservedly or undeservedly, strangers. The first symptom of this is noticeable in the highly favorable manner in which the World, in one of a series of parliamentary sketches, depicts Mr. Sullivan, the leader of the Home Rulers in the House. The World is not notorious for a tendency to undue panegyric, and . it is evident from the article in question that Mr. Sullivan has in the House achieved a senatorial and social success, that is to say he is listened to with attention when he speaks, and he is respected by his fellow members in the social phase of House of Commons life. From this it would appear that whilst not neglecting the advocacy of the 'policy to which they are pledged, Mr. Sullivan and his followers have contrived to hit the taste of the greatest English club, by avoiding making that advocacy a by word for boredom and inopportuneneas. So far this is something to have achieved in an assembly which has hitherto been remarkable for it 3 utter horror of all things pertaining to Ireland. The next point to which we find attention directed in connection with the Home Rulers is to be found in the determined stand they have taken on the question of the connection between religion and politics. It would appear that one Mr. McSwiney, Lord Mayor of Dublin, made a proposal to found an association on the cry of " Faith and Fatherland," faith, of course, meaning the Roman Catholic religion. This idea has its origin from the recent celebration of the O'Connell centenary, and takes that view of O'Connell's patriotism which would make him a Roman Catholic first and an Irishman afterwards. Lord Mayor MoSwiney's proposal has been received with the very extremest disfavor by the Home Rulers.' Mr. Sullivan promptly wrote what the Spectator calls " a rather skilful letter" to the Times, in which he pointed out that Mr. McSwiney's new departure or new programme was a notorious failure, and in which he says that '' the stormiest "passions of the Irish Catholic population " have been evoked by the monstrous "suggestion; that every organ of " Catholic opinion in our country has " execrated it ; that it is denounced " as a base ingratitude against, pur, Pro- " testant fellow - countrymen,' a great "treason against the nation." In the struggle which is now: likely i to' ensue between holy church and the Home Rulers it is more than probable that the latter will get the better, and the Spectator points out that if the nationalists should gain the day, the victory will be one' the importance of which it will be difficult to over-estimate. "For the first time," says an English contemporary, • " since the birth of the party which in a' " happy hour for its cause was endowed

'-'.with the name of 'Home Rule,' it finds "itself directly and undisguisedly - op- " posed to the influence which has " hitherto dominates! Irish political life. ■■{' Weshall see, amorigst other things, how '/'far the Irish priesthood are iriclined,to "place faith above Fatherland, and " whether, when Home rule and Episco- " pal influence pull them in contrary diiirections, they will placidly follow the " latter. On this point wo suspect new " and instructive lights may be forthcom- " ing, and it may startle the Church to "find how comparatively feeble is its " influence when its opponents have a " popular cry, and can conj uve with ap- " peals to patriotism." But there is another development of the Home Rule . movement, which gives it its most serious aspect as regards its possible influence on English politics. The Home Rulers now number a compact body of fifty-seven members, and, as parties stand in the House of Commons, are unable to hold a balance, owing to the preponderating majority gained .at the last elections by the Conservatives. But as majorities have been known before now to dwindle with the age of • Parliament, so it is not impossible, as English journals point out, to foresee a time when Liberals and Conservatives shall be so evenly matched that the decision of a question, probably of Imperial importance, may practically be vested in the Home Rulers, who will give their votes to the party that promises most liberally towards their peculiar views. Indeed, Mr., Sullivan, in an address to his constituents, has honestly stated that the largest hope of his party is in the arrival of a. time when they can make terms with either a Liberal or a Conservative Government anxious for the retention of po\Ver. The English newspapers do not dairy that some such state of affairs as 'fliis is quite within the bounds of the probable, that a juncture may arrive at which a Ministry might not be incorruptible, nor an Opposition scornful of the splendid bribe offered by nearly three score votes. In this view of affairs, and with the previously mentioned circumstances taken into consideration, it is not difficult to understand how we find the Home Rule party obtaining so large a share of attention at the hands of English journalists. ,