LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
Tab IRISH BAND AT OLYMPIA.
[To Ths EDITOS OF Tar "SPECTATOR."]
SIE:4 ought not to be surprised at the tenor of your article, "The Irish Incident at Olympia," seeing as I do that the conduct of the Cork band is open to a construc- tion which, I now understand, they completely repudiate, but which very naturally was accepted by you as a sign of complete alienation from England and her Queen. I am
the less inclined to be surprised, as I look on such an attitude as extremely natural from an Irish point of view. It is only on the stage that antagonists fall into each other's arms and forget in a moment the strife of years ; and while the Unionists continually preach that Mr. Gladstone and the Liberal Party have adopted Home-rule merely as a ladder to power, there is in that view of things but little reason for gratitude on the part of the Irish people. It is certain, more- over, that if they had played, they would have been taunted with hypocrisy by the same people who now reproach them with disloyalty. Now, apart from the attitude of the majority of the Liberal Party, what is there in the present condition of affairs to breed loyalty in a citizen of Cork P Nearly every Member in the county has been in prison at some time. While the senior Member for the borough, the leading Irishman, is daily accused of complicity with murder by the leading English paper, the same thing being insinuated in a cartoon in our national comic paper on the eve of a judicial inquiry; when the heir to an earldom is condemned as unfit for English society because he has dined with Irish Members,—in such a moment as this, Sir, it seems strange to you that their sym- pathies should be imperfect.
But you will reply,—" They were asked to play God Save the Queen,' not God Save the Government,' and they would not,— they were not loyal to her, they were indifferent." Could they be more indifferent to her than she has been to them P A genera- tion has passed away since her Majesty was enthusiastically received in Ireland; for them she has no visit, no message. Why have we no Royal residence there ? Does the nation refuse the grant? Are Ministers unwilling? If the Home- rule Bill becomes an act, doubtless it will be, as you say, through the Queen's signature ; but would she open the first Irish Parliament in person? You do not think so. That indifference to the Sovereign which breaks out so markedly from time to time in England as well as Ireland, dates from the ill-omened Ministry of Lord Beaconsfield ; we cannot have been mistaken in thinking that since the fall of that states- man there has been shown at Court a hostility to Liberalism which has been reflected throughout society, and which has perceptibly increased the bitterness of party spirit, and will, I fear, have results as regards the monarchy far more serious than the unmannerliness of an Irish band at a London Exhibition.
—I am, Sir, &c., HERBERT C. WEBB. [Our correspondent appears quite to agree with us as to the meaning of the Cork band's act, and, therefore, his letter seems a little superfluous. We, at least, never said and never thought that Mr. Gladstone adopted Home-rule " as a ladder to power." We have often said just the opposite.—ED. Spectator.]
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