LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MR. JOHN BRIGHT ON HOME-RULE.
I To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." j Six,—Your article, "What they Say of Mr. Bright," is one which his friends must have read with an interest mournfully quickened by the latest bulletins from Rochdale, and it is, I think, well illustrated by the following extract from a sixteen- year-old newspaper which I lighted upon the other day. (It is a copy of the Northern Daily Express, Wednesday, January 24th, 1872.) It will be seen that Mr. Bright's views of the Home-rule Question then, when he was at the zenith of his popularity as the great Radical tribune of the people, were precisely the same as they are now, if we may dare still to use the present tense concerning that so precious life. In your own words, "the present Mr. Bright is the old Mr. Bright, and the cause of Unionism which he represents is the cause with which, as an Irish reformer, he long ago identified himself."
I am, Sir, &c., THOS. HODGKIN. Benwelldene, Newcastle-on-Tyne, November 26th.
"Rochdale, January 20th, 1872.
"My DEAR O'DoNoenus,—It is said that some persons engaged in the canvass for the County Kerry have spoken of me as an advocate of what is termed Home-rule in Ireland. I hope no one has ventured to say anything so absurd and untrue. If it has been said by any one of any authority in the country, I shall be glad if you will contradict it. To have two representative legisla- tive assemblies of Parliament in the United Kingdom would be in my opinion an intolerable mischief, and I think no sensible man can wish for two within the limits of the present United Kingdom, who does not wish the United Kingdom to become two or more nations, entirely separated from each other. Excuse me for troubling you with this. It is no duty of mine to interfere with your contest, but I do not wish to be misrepresented.—I am, very
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