HOME-RULE FROM A DEMOCRATIC POINT OF VIEW. [To THE EDITOR
OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-I thank you for the editorial note to my letter in the Spectator of January 23rd. My reply would be,—Yes, truly the Irish voters have since the Union elected Members of Parlia- ment and sent them to St. Stephen's ; bat,—(1st), the number of voters has been small, owing to a high qualification, until the last Election; (2nd), until 1880 voters could not vote as they pleased, but only as they dared ; (3rd), Ireland has elected Members of Parliament under protest, tacit or expressed, since 1800; (4th), no sooner was the Union a fait accompli, than a cry for Repeal arose, and waxed until the fall of O'Connell, about 1848. The Young Ireland Party took up O'Connell's role, if they did not don his mantle. In 1865, or about that time, Fenianism made a splutter, but was followed by Buttisin, and after by Parnellism, which lasts most persistently.
I think that any impartial onlooker, say a man in the moon, would be justified from the above facts in saying that the in- habitants of Ireland have never "sat down to" or accepted the
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