A SELF-DENYING COINAGE.
[TO THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—You may have noticed the public announcement of a new coinage, the inscription on which purports to limit the rule of his Majesty King George V. to "all the Britons" or " Britains "—BRITT. OMN. REX—just as if his Britannic Majesty desired to advertise his abdication of authority over Ireland and the Irish. Is not this a quite too precipitate anticipation of extreme Home Rule ? Of course by no possi- bility can Irishmen be included under any number of Britains, whether north or south, or Britons, whether ancient or modern. But does not this remarkable inscription constitute almost an unprecedented example of the self-denying ordinance? Of course Independent Nationalists on both sides of the Atlantic will hail with enthusiasm the retiring modesty of this unexpected renunciation.—I am, Sir, &c., 13 Milborne Grove, Bolton, S. W. F. HUGH O'Doruism,.
[Mr. O'Donnell is always ingenious; but there is nothing new in the inscription, which is identical with that on the coins of the late King. Besides, he seems to be unaware that Britain includes Ireland. This island is Magna Britannia. Ireland is Parva Britannia, and Britain thus includes both islands. It is wrong to speak of Great Britain when we mean the United Kingdom, quite correct to speak of Britain.—En. Spectator.]
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