JUDGMENTS ON REGICIDES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In a paragraph in your issue of May 18th last in which you refute the charge that the ancestors of certain noble families obtained their lands by robbing the Church you state that " we actually witnessed a Liberal newspaper tact. fully alluding to the old tradition that the holders of abbey lands were and are all accursed. The Liberal journalist in question forgot to add the delightful retort made by the man who was told that almost all the original holders of abbey Permanent Care of the Feeble-mmesa„ 1 lands had died violent deaths : 'So did almost all the 18 Clarence Road, Withington, Manchester. Apostles.' " I have a cutting in which the story is given in
another connexion, but I cannot tell where it came from. It
is as follows:- " Warburton was arguing on behalf of prerogative. Quin said, Pray, my lord, spare me ; you are not acquainted with my principles ; I am a republican, and, perhaps, I even think that the execution of Charles I. may be justified.' Ay,' said War- burton, ' by what law ? ' Quin replied, By all the laws that he had left them.' The bishop would have got off upon judgments, and bade the player remember that all the regicides came to violent ends. That, if I am not mistaken, was also the case of the twelve Apostles,' was Quin's reply. Walpole comments on this : There was great wit ad hominem in the latter's reply, but I think the former equal to anything I ever heard.' " The glee the ignorant feel when they catch the learned tripping must be my excuse for writing to you.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Pietermaritzburg.
PAX VOBISCUM.
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