LTo Tut Emma ar TIM ° spec - m . 0ml Sin—Sorely the alleged clearances
one hundred years ago arc; a purely Scottish Question, and do not, whatever the real facts may be, in the least justify the wanton attacks made by Mr. Lloyd George on English landowners. What right has he— if you will allow me to repeat a question asked before—to visit the sins of Scottish Dukes upon the third and fourth genera- tion of other people's children, and to penalize men, like myself, who have bought every acre of land which they possess at its full market value with hard cash P Turning to another point, might is not right, but the one is, often enough, the foundation of the other. A vast proportion of national rights are founded, history tells us, upon force or fraud, and the same thing is true, in some degree, of private rights also. Wise men, however, have decreed that, in order to avoid the chaos and turmoil of perpetual quarrelling and warfare, pre- scription should give validity to a title, tainted though that title might be at its root. Once ignore this principle and you throw everything into the melting-pot, not excepting the British Empire, which owes its existence largely to the bully log and chicanery of needy adventurers and greedy officials. The principles of morality are as applicable to national as to individual actions, and if the Duke of Sutherland is to be expropriated on account of the sins of his ancestors, it is difficult to see how England can claim to escape like treatment in regard to her possessions in Africa and Asia. What is sauce for the Duke is sauce for the Empire—at any rate this is the view of many millions of Asiatics and Africans who are eagerly anxious to imitate Mr. Lloyd George—I am, Sir, Q. F. RYDER.
Seareroft, sear Leeds.
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