SIR C. GAVAN DUFFY AND THE IRISH CIVIL SERVICE.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE ..sracTaron."1 Snt,--Let me at once express regret for even laying myself open to the suspicion of being wanting in courtesy to Sir C. Gavan Duffy, for whom I have always entertained feelings of genuine respect. If my zeal for the truth of facts led me to express myself too strongly in the manner, I have nothing to withdraw from the matter of my letter. It is a very erroneous, but not an uncommon, belief, that a large pro- portion of Englishmen are to this day employed in the Irish Civil or Public Service. When, therefore, I found Sir C. Gavan Duffy appearing to endorse this error in the Spectator of May 20th, I thought, in the interest of the truth on an important point, to dispute his accuracy. This is the passage in question :—" The Civil Service.—The permanent staff must be in accord with the Cabinet and with national opinion. Nearly two hundred years ago, Swift pronounced it to be an intolerable grievance that Englishmen should be employed almost exclusively in the public service of Ireland, and the intolerable grievance has not ceased to this day." Is it quite fair of Sir Charles to appear to think that he has at all substantiated his ease by replying that "be can remem- ber a time when the Lord-Lieutenant, the Chief Secretary, the Commander of the Forces, the Inspector-General of Con- stabulary, and the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police were Englishmen or Scotsmen"? The question between us is not what Sir Charles can remember about certain chief agents of Government, but what are the facts about Swift's intolerable grievance not having ceased to this day, as to the bulk of the staff of the Irish Administration. The Lord- Lieutenant (who within a few years has twice been Irish) and Chief Secretary do not even belong to the " permanent staff" alluded to in the above quotation by Sir C. Gavan Duffy, so it was not open to him to name them in his reply as persons referred to. I cannot but think still that Sir Charles—in- advertently of course—lent his name to sanction a conspicuous error of fact.—I am, Sir, &o., Athenaum Club, Pall Mall, S.W. W. H. HALL.
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