See this man in your mind as you see him in the street,realise that it is his open mind we wish to influence or his empty stomach we wish to cure,and then consider seriously (if you can)the five men,including two of his own alleged oppressors,who were summoned as a Royal Commission to consider his claims when he or his sort went out on strike upon the railways.I knew nothing against,indeed I knew nothing about,any of the gentlemen then summoned,beyond a bare introduction to Mr.
Henderson,whom I liked,but whose identity I was in no danger of confusing with that of a railway-porter.I do not think that any old gentleman,however absent-minded,would be likely on arriving at Euston,let us say,to hand his Gladstone-bag to Mr.Henderson or to attempt to reward that politician with twopence.Of the others I can only judge by the facts about their status as set forth in the public Press.The Chairman,Sir David Harrell,appeared to be an ex-official distinguished in (of all things in the world)the Irish Constabulary.I have no earthly reason to doubt that the Chairman meant to be fair;but I am not talking about what men mean to be,but about what they are.The police in Ireland are practically an army of occupation;a man serving in them or directing them is practically a soldier;and,of course,he must do his duty as such.But it seems truly extraordinary to select as one likely to sympathise with the democracy of England a man whose whole business in life it has been to govern against its will the democracy of Ireland.What should we say if Russian strikers were offered the sympathetic arbitration of the head of the Russian Police in Finland or Poland?And if we do not know that the whole civilised world sees Ireland with Poland as a typical oppressed nation,it is time we did.
The Chairman,whatever his personal virtues,must be by instinct and habit akin to the capitalists in the dispute.Two more of the Commissioners actually were the capitalists in the dispute.Then came Mr.