LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
S1R,—Your correspondent, "M. A.," is evidently one of those ingenuous persons who believe all they hear. His opinion that the hatred to Mr. Gladstone (which is undoubted) is owing to his unfair, ungenerous, and bitter ("M. A:El " italics) opposition to the late Government, is just one of those opinions which a person who accepts newspaper statements for evidence would be apt to form. He is probably one of those who believe that Mr. Freeman said, "Perish, India," who do not believe that two English clergymen saw an impaled body in 1876, and who sup- pose that Mr. Gladstone originated what they would call "the atrocity agitation." The writers on whom he relies, of course, know better; but a man cannot quarrel with his bread-and- butter. His own memory evidently does not run very far beyond the end of the last decade ; but a little reference to documents will show him that Some time before the election of 1880 was even thought of, Mr. Gladstone had been told that his conduct was worse than that ascribed to the Bashi-Bazouks in Bulgaria, and had been called "a sophis- tical rhetorician, intoxicated with the exuberance of his own verbosity ;" not to mention the amenities of the writers above referred to, amenities which "M. A." will be surprised to hear began long before 1880, or 1874 either. So much for "rousing
a bitter spirit in politics." As to a man reaping what he has sown, can "M. A." quote any saying of Mr. Gladstone's which can be regarded as the seed of that allusion, which we have heard, to his uncontrollable temper and overweening vanity ? Can "M. A." name any act done by him of which the black- balling of his son the other day at a leading London Club, simply and avowedly because he was Mr. Gladstone's son, can honestly be said to have been "the natural result ?" "M. A." is quite right to regret the bitterness shown towards Mr. Gladstone, it is one of the most depressing signs of the time ; but he has only himself, and such as he, to thank for it. If they would observe and remember facts, instead of accepting statements, the root of bitterness would soon be withered, for lack of soil wherein to
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