THE PETITION AGAINST WAR.
ere TUE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] Sin,—I ask with hesitation for a portion of your valuable space for a few lines on a document, which by the end of the present week may seem out of date, but one or two points about it perhaps may still be of interest to your readers.
The response from London was least satisfactory ; from Corn- wall and the North of England, good ; from Scotland, better;. from Wales, most enthusiastic. The feeling in that Principality against the recent policy of the Government must indeed be most intense.
Mention should be made of a large number of letters, from all parts of the kingdom, complaining in most bitter terms of the "disheartening timidity or apathy" of the Liberal leaders in Par- liament, which is "breaking the hearts of provincial Liberals." It is certain that, with or without cause, this feeling is widely prevalent at the present time.
We have Sir John Holker's testimony that but for the agitation against the pro-Turkish policy of Ministers, the Russian Govern- ment would have been told, "If you, Russia, put a single soldier across the Pratt', we will declare war against you ;" and we are justified in thinking that a protest, perhaps equal to that of seventy meetings of 3,000 people each, has not been without influence of late.
I must add, in conclusion, that the gratitude of all lovers of peace, justice, and freedom is due to the lady on whom almost the whole of the immense labour involved in eliciting the expres- sion of opinion has fallen, and in undertaking which Mrs. Jacob Bright has added fresh honour to an honourable name.—I am,
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