Although it is satisfactory that there is so large a
majority for the Treaty, the fact has been considerably obscured. Parties which do not seriously think of disputing the Treaty have showered so much abuse upon Mr. Cosgrave that in common repute they are not held to stand with him in any single cause. This is a most unhappy result, as it seems to us, of Proportional Repre- sentation. The Constitution provides that the President of the Executive Council and his Ministers shall carry on till a new President is nominated by the Dail itself. It is practically certain that Mr. Cosgrave will be invited to carry on and the only question, when we write, is whether he will accept. The differences between the Government Party and the Labour Party probably go too deep for a working friendship. On the other hand parties upon which Mr. Cosgrave might rely—the Farmers, the National League and the Independents—would want him to abolish the tariffs to which he is heavily committed, and overhaul the whole policy of the Irish language.
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