2 APRIL 1881, Page 12

WHIGS AND TORIES.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—You explain " why Whigs do not turn Tories." That great Nestor of Whigdom, the old Marquis of Lansdowne, once told me a story of a little boy, scion of a groat Whig house, who asked his mother confidentially, " Mamma, are Tories born wicked, or do they only become so ?" "See," I remarked, on hearing this anecdote, "the sort of prejudices which Whigs instil into the tender minds of their unsophisticated children !" Lord Lansdowne laughed heartily, and perhaps your readers will do the same, at this suggestion of a reason " why Whigs do not turn Tories." With all respect to you, and also to Mr. Kebbel, I should like to propose another division of two parties, viz., the party which wishes England to remain England, as we have known and gloried in it ; and the party which would so far transform its institutions, that a dweller therein might deem himself in America or in France. The difference is essential and fundamental, albeit, the first might welcome some reforms, and the last reserve some relics of the past. One party marches to the tune of " God Save the Queen" (with or without varia- tions), the other to " Yankee Doodle " or " Partant pour In