23 FEBRUARY 1889, Page 12

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

" THE APOTHEOSIS OF HUMBUG."

LTO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTIT01..1

SIB.,—Late on Friday, the 15th inst., I saw it stated in the leading columns of the Dublin Mail that Sir George Trevelyan, speaking at Bridgeton, had called the writer of the letter under the above title in the Spectator of the 9th inst., " a ruffian " (not even "a genial ruffian "), and declared that "the Spectator had disgraced itself by printing it." These flowers of oratory did not appear in the ordinary reports of the day, and hence escaped my notice. It seems that the public nowadays are not very keen to know all Sir George says, and that a long speech of his is usually condensed into half-a-column or so. But a certain " Nationalist "journal in Ireland has made special and, it assures us, costly arrangements to report Sir George in full, and to this enthusiasm of a sudden friendship is due the knowledge of what he is reported to have said at Bridgeton. It is, of course, astute policy for the "Nationalist" journals to parade in their columns a repentant ex-Chief Secre- tary ; but I have sufficient respect left for Sir George Trevelyan to hope that he did not use the language attributed to him. In the terminology of Irish Nationalism, " ruffian " may be defined as a word of mild reproach. But in England and Scotland it still retains its old significance, and is rarely used by gentlemen, and never to each other.

But whether he used the objectionable language or not, Sir George seems to have been curiously exasperated by my remark that the recent Liberal Unionist banquetters in Dublin " indulged in the after-dinner laughter which is good for digestion." Certainly we did very freely, and all Dublin also was set laughing that fateful afternoon at the humorous figure cut by the Lord Mayor and his vates sacer in the Freeman's Journal. " Parnellism" has not yet knocked all the fun out of us in Ireland. As to Mr. William O'Brien, few of us, and certainly not myself, felt inclined to laugh at him. There are absurdities which are painful rather than amusing ; such are Mr. O'Brien's. There are absurdities very amusing and not at all painful ; such are Mr. Thomas Sexton's. I must have read in the past few years a mile of columns in the " Nationalist " journals teeming with gibes and jests, and ridicule not merely of their political opponents, but of the Judges, Magistrates, police, and other functionaries (in- cluding Sir George himself) who were simply doing their duty ; and I have little sympathy for those super-sensitive patriots who are so deeply concerned about their clothes and the class of railway-carriage suitable to their dignity. The late Liberal Unionist banquet in Dublin will be memorable if it fixes public attention on the shameful intolerance of the Irish Party calling themselves '• Nationalists," and aspiring to be trusted with authority over their fellow-countrymen. The Orangemen in their most arrogant days were models of mildness and toleration in comparison.

The Liberal Party is divided now between those who dissent from and assent to Mr. Gladstone. I venture to remind the Assentient Liberals that in demanding that Mr. O'Brien and similar offenders shall be treated as "political prisoners," they admit that the offences of these gentlemen have been deliberately committed for a political purpose. As regards the relations now existing in Ireland between landlord and tenant, a high authority has recently spoken with honourable and significant plainness. A few weeks ago, the distin- guished Catholic Prelate, Archbishop Walsh, of Dublin, wrote some letters to the Conservative Dublin Evening Mail. In one of them, his Grace made the following observations You say I called the Irish landlords wicked men.' Excuse me. I used the adjective `wicked' in reference to certain landlords.' There are, I am sure you will recognise, wicked landlords as well as wicked tenants. I should be sorry to see the phrase applied with anything like generality to either side. Indeed, I think the cases in which it could be applied to the present race of Irish landlords in their dealings with their tenants are, on the whole, exceedingly few. The settlement of the Irish land question would present much less difficulty than it does if all persons would bear in mind how very small is the number of estates in Ireland on which there is now any very serious trouble between landlord and tenant."

Why then, may I ask, all this turmoil, and why is Mr. W. O'Brien in gaol, and Father Ma.cFadden waiting his trial for complicity in murder P If every order of men is to be execrated, and expropriated, and exterminated because of the sins of " exceedingly few," not even Sir George Trevelyan will escape