" IMPERIITM ET LIBERTAS."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Lord Beaconsfield alone can tell us whether, as you sug- gest, he borrowed his motto, " Imperhun et Libertas," from Lord Clarendon's misquotation of Tacitus ; or, as is equally possible, from the same misquotation occurring in Bacon's "Advancement of Learning ; or from some other source. But at least it may be maintained, with all due respect to the Editor
of the Spectator and to Professor Mommsen, that the subjoined quotations from Cicero, a "Roman statesman," afford some-
justification for the juxtaposition of the words :—
Cie., in Cat., iv., 9, 19.,—" Cogitate, quantis laboribus fundatum imperium, quanta virtute stabilitam libertatem," Src. Cic., Ph., vi., 6, 19,—" Popnlum Roman= servire, fas non eat: quem Dii immortales omnibus gentibns imperare volnerunt. Res in extremum eat adducta discrimen. De libertate decernitur."
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