THE HOME-RULE QUESTION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIB,—May I—a political atom, or rather, an electron, but one with a vote which would have been given for Home-rule before Mr. Gladstone's conversion—express my hearty assent to your opinion that Home-rule will not form a plank in the next Liberal platform, however " bosses " of the platform may try to utilise it as a scare P If there were no other reasons, two only would suffice,—viz., that Ireland has just been given enough, and more than enough, to occupy its digestion at present ; and that owing to long exclusion from office, the Liberal party is overloaded with other work abso- lutely necessary to be taken in hand at once. May I also, while writing, suggest that in the multitude of leaflets may be unwisdom ? One authorised document is wanting—an answer as well as a statement—not one word of which should be beyond the comprehension of a rustic voter.—I am, Sir, &c., A. H. B.
P.S.—I came lately on an amusing definition of the plat- form " boss " by the author of " Hudibras" :—" Like a figure in arithmetic, the more ciphers he stands before the more his value amounts to. He is a great haranguer, talks himself into authority, and like a parrot climbs with his beak."
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