IRISH UNIONISTS.
To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—It is with much satisfaction that we welcome the support of the Spectator to the Unionists of Ireland who are in favour of the policy of conciliation and reform. The "handful of faddists," as your correspondent in the Spectator of October 27th kindly calls us, have, I believe, the support of the great mass of the British electorate, who are disgusted with the non-posaumus attitude of official Unionism in Ireland, and will endorse your scathing rebuke "that a certain section of Irish Unionists show in their writings and speeches a harshness, not to say truculence, of spirit which has a very unfortunate effect on English opinion." Your state- ment of the position which we seek to bold could not be put with greater clearness : "We have every sympathy, on general lines, with those Unionists who are trying to get Irish affairs better managed, and Irish wishes more generously granted,—that is, of course, without in any way imj)erilling the Legislative Union." Whatever efforts may be now made to repudiate it, we hold that this was the policy initiated by the Unionist Government during Lord Dudley's Viceroyalty, and it will be hard to persuade us that it did not differ from that which governed Lord Cadogan's seven years of office, which, as the Times said, ended "with the state of the country, if not worse, certainly no better, than when he began." At that time the Coercion Act was in full force, and some forty
political offenders were undergoing various terms of imprison- ment. This may well be contrasted with the state of the country at the close of Lord Dudley's regime, which alone should be ample justification for continuing the policy which we advocate.—I am, Sir, &c.,
LINDSEY TALBOT-CROSBIE.
Ardfert Abbey, Co. Kerry.
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