Mr. Caine himself applied on the spot for the Chiltern
Hundreds, in order that he might vacate his seat for Barrow-in-Furness and test the feeling of his constituents by asking for re-election, which he evidently hoped would elicit an outburst of enthusiasm for the magnanimous con- duct of the great leader of the extreme Temperance party. In his election address and the speeches he has since made, Mr. Caine assumed the attitude of a politician who regards the Irish Question as a very trivial and secondary question indeed. He vituperated the Government• in no measured terms, and now declares that he is so sick of separating him- self from the Liberal Party, that he will ally himself with the Tories no longer even in relation to their campaign against Home-rule. If Mr. Gladatone's next measure does not satisfy him,—and apparently he will be satisfied with very trifling concessions indeed,—he will retire from public life for a time rather than oppose him. In other words, Mr. Caine is one of those politicians who cannot take in the importance of great issues, because his mind is full of.. the importance of petty issues. He will let England go to the wall in his wrath with the publicans, like a strategist who, in his irritation at a mosquito-bite, should throw away the opportunity of winning a great battle against a deadly foe.
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