LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
A THREATENING LETTER. [To TER EDITOR. Or ?RN " SPECTATOR.'`) • think the Spectator would be well advised in future to close its columns to attacks on Mr. Patrick Ford as well as to refer to him with decency itself. Mr. Ford is an American of high character and position, whose public life during two generations has been open as the day, and whose writings during that time have decisively influenced American events. There are few men better known or more highly regarded in America, and that being so, one is inclined to take little account of the raving attacks of the scribe who shelters his small personality under the pseudonym of "X." Heaven forbid that I should attempt to vindicate Mr. Ford's character and career before the aspersions of that creature. What he and others like him think of Mr. Ford and those for whom he speaks matters little. The world is changing pretty rapidly, and it will be well for the Spectator to recognise that fact. It may seem impossible to the Spectator to conceive of a time when the Tory papers of Britain will not be allowed carte blanche in the vilification of men whose ruling motive is a love for Ireland. Nevertheless, that time is near at hand. There are millions of the best citizens of America who are as devoted to Ireland as any one living within its four seas, and Mr. Ford is among the most respected of their leaders. What "X." regards as Mr. Ford's dishonour, he and they regard as the best work of his life. There is so much in the point of view. Mr. Ford is far more capable of injuring you than you are of injuring him, so even though your corre- epondent is three thousand miles away and hides behind a pseudonym, a stopper should be put on his impertinence.—I
am, Sir, &c., BENEDICT FITZPATRICK. Columbia Literary Agency, 500 Fifth Aveuste, New York City.
Now I rely on your courage and honesty to publish this.
[It is (serious to note how readily a section of Mr. Ford', countrymen adopt the device of the threatening letter. Though the above letter has not the usual picture of a coffin or open grave at the head, the meaning is, we presume, the same. We are, of course, quite willing to admit that Mr. Ford is far more capable of injuring us than we are of injuring him, but we think it a little unfair to add moral to physical menace, and to use the former to extort publication. "Rory of the Hills" never, as far as we remember, makes any such demands. In truth, we are getting a little tired of the attempts of correspondents to force their way into our columns by insinuations that we dare not publish their vituperative nonsense.—En. Spectator.]
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