LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
PERICLES AND MR. GLADSTONE.
[TO TILE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTAT08.1
SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. Tollemache, says in the Spectator of February 25th, "Mirabeau, when likening Lafayette to Cromwell, can hardly have dreamt, Frenchman though he was, of placing the French hero on the same level as the English." I think this is a mistake, and that Mirabeau did place Lafayette on a level with Cromwell. but in another sense than that conceived by Mr. Tolle- mache, and not as a hero. In a Life of Denton by me now in the press occurs, by a coincidence, the following passage :—" Lafayette was contemptuously called by Mira- beau Grandison-Cromwell.' Some modern writers have forgotten that Cromwell had not been rehabilitated in Mirabeau's time, and that hypocrisy and cant were then recognised as parts of his character. Mirabeau meant to sneer at Lafayette, but meant something more. He cer- tainly did not mean to attribute to him such qualities as to-day would be associated with Cromwell's name." Then Mirabeau'a words are quoted showing that he considered Lafayette's policy to be dictated by "hypocrisy and self- interest."—I am, Sir, &c., Marlborough, February 26th. A. H. BEE8LY.
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