22 MAY 1886, Page 12

HOME-RULE v. SEPARATION.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—The more I reflect upon the Irish Question, and the further I push my inquiries, the more I become convinced that the real object and aim of the strong men behind Mr. Parnell and other Parliamentary figure-heads is the entire separation of Ireland from Great Britain, and the establishment of a Fenian Republic in Ireland. This, of course, is almost a truism to quick-witted Londoners and British townsmen ; but such a truth has not even begun to dawn on the rustics of East Anglia, who are ready to follow blindly Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Arch whithersoever they load. Happily, the Conformist ministers are not. That Mr. Gladstone is blind to this truth, I do all I canto persuade myself ; but I find it hard to understand how his penetrating genius can fail to pierce through the clouds which obscure it from him.

From personal acquaintance with him of long standing, I know that Mr. Arch is incapable of thinking out a complicated problem to its necessary issue, and that his guidance of our labourers on the Irish Question is that of "a blind leader of the blind."

I intend devoting my beat energies during the ensuing weeks to laying facts about Ireland before the electors of the Newmarket Division of Cambridgeshire. I would commend this course to others in their own districts.

AU true Liberals have to thank yon, Sir, sincerely for the

enlightened and temperate opposition you have offered in the Spectator to the "Disruptionist " policy.—I am, Sir &c., W. H. Hsu,

President, Liberal Association of Eastern Cambridgeshire.

Six-Mile Bottom, May 19th.