MR. LECICY AND HOME RULE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—We observe in the Spectator of last Saturday a letter from Mrs. Lecky deploring the republication by us of the lets, Mr. Lecky's essay on " Clerical Influences." Mrs. Lecky enumerates many reasons why the essay should not have been republished, and adds that we must have been aware of them. We regret, that she has not read the introduction with which we have prefaced the book. Had she read it she would have seen that we were not merely aware of these reasons but that we fully stated them in that introduction. We added some reasons which rendered its republication, in our judgment, not irreverent to the memory of Mr. Lecky, nor open to the charge of being an unfair use of his name for political purposes. We are confident that should Mrs. Lecky read our introduction, she will agree that we have not suppressed the fact that MA Lecky did change his opinion, and that our, we think, unpre- judiced analysis of the reasons which led him to do so makes the republication of his essay neither an act of disrespect to his memory nor inconsistent with sound public policy.—We
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