t
cause. Mr. Long, however, very rapidly won the hearts of those who had
succeeded in securing the resignation of Mr. Wyndham by his description
of devolution as "a cowardly surrender to the forces of disorder," and
in the same strain the Earl of Westmeath spoke of "truckling to
disloyalty and trying to conciliate those who will not be conciliated."

At the opening of the session of 1905 the whole question was ventilated.
The official explanations proving unsatisfactory, the Orangemen decided
to withdraw their support from the Government on all questions affecting
Ireland, and the leader of the party went so far as to utter the threat
that "Ulster might have to draw upon her reserves," which was taken to
mean that the Orangemen who were members of the Government would resign
_en masse_--an action which, in the moribund condition of the Ministry,
would have meant an instant dissolution. At the very beginning of the
session Mr. Wyndham had announced that the matter of Sir Antony's
dealings with Lord Dunraven had been considered by the Cabinet, and "the
Government expressed through me their view that the action of Sir Antony
MacDonnell was indefensible. But they authorised me to add that they
were thoroughly satisfied that his conduct was not open to the
imputation of disloyalty."

The equivocal and ambiguous position in which the Unionists placed
themselves in the course of this episode is a striking commentary on the
impossibility of governing a country against its will. The Tories tried
once again, in the historic phrase, to catch the Whigs bathing and steal
their clothes, but this time they failed. When the Orangemen held a
pistol at the Government's head and bade its members stand and deliver,
Mr. Wyndham had perforce to resign, but the mystery, which has not yet
been cleared up, is the reason why the Viceroy and the Under Secretary,
who were tarred with the same brush, retained their posts.

It should in frankness be stated, however, that when during the session
of 1907 the Prime Minister remarked on a certain occasion that he always
thought Mr. Wyndham resigned the Chief Secretaryship in consequence of
criticisms from the Orangemen below the gangway on his own side, Mr.
Balfour interrupted with the remark--"That is a complete mis-statement,
and I think the right honourable gentleman must know it."

One may well ask, in view of this, what was meant by Mr. Wyndham when,
speaking on the reasons for his retirement, o