A MINISTERTAT,IST ON "THE PEOPLE."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.']
Sra,—After your footnote to Mr. Masterman's letter last week, I feel that you would hardly permit me to deal at length with this subject. But it is scarcely necessary to do this. All I would claim, in the name of fair play, is the right of making a brief personal explanation.
(1) I deny that I am a party politician. For many years I have refrained from identifying myself with either party. I wrote my letter because I am an East Londoner of the third generation, having lived as a worker in the East End all my life except for a few years, when I lived in Camberwell, and I felt
that in the book called " From the Abyss " I was being called a criminal.
(2) I regret that, having lent this book to a friend when I wrote my previous letter, I made the mistake of saying that the book mentions Mile End Road. But this is really unimportant. What the book does mention is Whiteohapel Road (p. 69), and it describes gangs of roughs marching down that road and openly exacting toll of their victims. Whiteehapel Road and Mile End Road are merely different names for adjacent sections of the same thoroughfare. The author now admits that when he wrote his book he had never seen the Mile End Road. I quite believe it.
(3) Although for several years I lived in close proximity to Whitechapel Road, I have no desire, even if I had the ability, to descend to "Limehousing," an art in which we natives cannot pretend to compete with certain occasional visitors.—I am,
[We cannot print any more letters on this subject. We have omitted a portion of our correspondent's letter, as it would invite to fresh controversy.—ED. Spectator.]
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