AN INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Having had some correspondence with Mr. Goldwin Smith on the subject of his letter to you prior to its appearance, I did not wish to renew the controversy, but as my silence has been misconstrued, I beg leave to say that the article in the Quarterly Review for April, 1872, mentioned by him, was written by me, and is reprinted in the third series of my " Essays," published in 1873. I therefore am personally responsible for the statement that " Sir Robert Peel was so irritated on the night of the third reading of the Corn-Law Bill that he came, after the debate, to Lord Lincoln (the late Duke of Newcastle) at Whitehall Place, and insisted on his carrying a hostile message to Mr. Disraeli." My authority is the late Duke of Newcastle, who told me the story, with details which leave no doubt in my mind of the identity of the person to whom the message was to be carried. It is clear from the reports that in the course of the debate of that night a difference arose between Mr. Disraeli and Sir Robert Peel as to their former relations to each other, and the Duke told me that Sir Robert came armed with two letters from Mr. Disraeli distinctly bearing upon that point. I can offer no explanation of the discrepancy between Mr. Goldwin Smith's version and mine. I will only add that mine has been some years before the world, and was never ques- tioned in any quarter till it was recently questioned by him. His peculiar point seems to be that it would be a blot on Sir Robert Peel's memory (which I am partly instrumental in fixing) to sup- pose that he would have sent a hostile message to Mr. Disraeli, then a distinguished Member of the House of Commons, now Earl of Beaconsfield and Prime Minister of England, but rather a credit, than the contrary, to have called out Lord George Bentinck for some vague generalities about treachery, such as Leaders of Opposition are commonly permitted to indulge in with impunity. This, I must say, with all possible respect for Mr. Goldwin Smith, appears to me wholly untenable.—I am, Sir, &a., 8 St. James's Street, December 12. A. HAYWARD.
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