"LADY VAL'S ELOPEMENT."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Your reviewer, speaking of myself in his notice of "Lady Vars Elopement," published in the Spectator on February 13th, writes : "His °biter dicta on various important matters about which he manifestly knows nothing are often offensive." Had your reviewer stopped short at criticising -the literary merits or demerits of the book I should have said nothing, but a charge of ignorance levelled at an author seems to me a more or less serious matter. The "important matters" referred to by your reviewer are doubtless the references in the book to the new system of local government and the infamous administration of the Poor-law in some rural districts. A man can hardly gauge his own ignorance or knowledge, but I can claim for myself most unique ex- periences which should certainly form a basis for a sound knowledge of the subjects referred to. The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, who did me the honour of reading this work, was kind enough to write me that he "strongly sympathised with, and admired the spirit of liberty and justice exhibited in it." He doubtless would not have done so had he considered that the author knew "manifestly nothing" about the "various important matters" referred
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