LETTERS TO THE • EDITOR.
MR. BALFOTJR'S POPULARITY IN IRELAND. [TO THE EDITOR Os THE " SPECTATOR:1 'In,—Havittg read with much pleasure your critique in the Spectator of April 14th, on the letters of the Birmingham Daily Gazette "Special Commissioner" in Ireland, I beg to endorse *very word you say as to the" widespread and intense personal popularity of Mr. Balfour in Ireland." In the autumn of 1892, I went on foot from Dunfanaghy to Stranorlar, vid Gweedore, -Derrybeg, Bunbeg, Dun gloe, Fineton, &c., and amidst all the terrible squalor and misery with which those parts of County Donegal unfortunately abound, the one bright spot was the unfeigned and voluntary praise bestowed by the peasantry and even gombeen-men on Mr. Balfour. I happened to arrive at a Village just-ds Mf.-Morley's proclamation had been posted —the paste was not even dry. In that same village I mine across a copy of Mr. T. D. Sullivan's Poems of the "Dirty Little England" series, distributed with the author's compli- ments, and at that spot (precise particulars of which I omit for obvious reasons), I was told on authority I could not doubt, that Mr. A. J. Balfour was the most popular man in those parts, that if he would only "put up " for South Donegal no one else would have a chance, and it was with unmistake- able pride that those who thus expressed themselves, referred to Mr. Balfour's having driven through that part of the country at night and refused the protection of a police escort. This was in connection with the romantic journey of his sister and himself through the Wild West to which you refer, and I gladly add my testimony to your statement that " this incident is amongst the treasured memories in many an Irish cabin."—
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