THE TORIES AND HOME-RULE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPRCTATOR.'.1
Sia,—Guided greatly by your thoughtful teaching, I have been familiarising my mind with the most disagreeable possibility that it might be my duty at the coming Election to support the Conservative who will contest this borough against a Glad- stonian Liberal. But after Mr. Parnell's revelation of Tory tactics, how can a Liberal Unionist support a Conservative ? A few months ago, according to Mr. Parnell, the Conservative leaders were willing to grant "to Ireland a statutory Legisla- ture, with a right to protect her own manufactures, and this would have been coupled with a settlement of the Irish Land Question, on the basis of purchase, on a larger scale than that now proposed by the Prime Minister." One stands aghast at such an insane scheme, aud that it should have been proposed by those who now pose as defenders of the Union, is enough to make him suppose that politics are as utterly dis- sociated from morality, as when the Roman Emperorship was sold to Didius Julianus by the PrEetorian Guards. I, for one, at least, cannot now on any account support a Conservative, for I
an ordinary Conservative has really only one policy,—thepo cy, viz., of "follow-my-leader." Mr. Gladstone's integrity is en re, and even those who have doubted the expediency of his Home- rule policy must begin to trust his wisdom too. " Pervertunt homines ea, gum stint fundament& naturze, cum utilitatem ab
[Did our correspondent read Sir Michael Hicks-Beach's reply, which seemed, to the House of Commons at least, sufficiently plain and categorical? And has he read Lord Carvarvon's frank account of the interview to which Mr. Parnell may be supposed to have alluded P—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
