Stroud has given Mr. Horsman a very Radical colleague in
Mr. Henry Winterbotham, in the place of Mr. Poulett Scrope, who was a very moderate Liberal. Mr. Winterbotham was feasted last week, on occasion of his return by his new constituents ; declared himself in favour of a much larger Redistribution Bill, and ex- pressed his disbelief that the new electors would be "cajoled into Conservatism." He described Fenianism as the bitter fruit of Irish discontent, "instigated by Irishmen who fought in America for a cause in which they had no interest, and who exhibited the hatred that took them abroad in the attempts to embroil America with England." The attempts made "to embroil America with England" were made much more by the Confederates, who bad comparatively scarcely any Irish recruits, than by the Irish Northerners. And why Mr. Winterbotham denies the Fenians all personal interest in the great civil war, except on the ground that it is agreeable to abuse Fenians, we do not know. We have no tenderness for Fenians ourselves; but on the whole we are bound to say they seem pretty zealous Red Republicans, and Red Repub- licans as a rule certainly sympathized passionately with the North, —as did many wiser politicians.
Previous page
