" FAUCIT OF BALLIOL." [To THE EDITOR OF THE "BrEcraroa.")
SIR,—In your review of my novel, "Emit of Balliol," you take exception to a political passage which may be misunderstood.
It was written at the time when I, in common with many earnest Liberals, felt both shocked and disappointed by the blank sus- pension of the Habeas Corpus in Ireland, unaccompanied by any outline of remedial legislation, as the first measure of the Government from whom we hoped so much. I was far from wishing to imply that there was no reversal of foreign policy.
What we thought then, I believe we think now,—that the 4' sentimental" effect of that measure in Ireland, where senti- -ment goes for so much (" My Lords," said the Duke of Argyll, in one of his speeches, "sentiment rules the world "), was enough to undo from the first much that might have been hoped from the Land Act, and even in England might turn, as I believe it has turned, more than one by-election. But I should be sorry to be suspected of any lukewarmness of sympathy with the true Liberal cause, or any wish to dissociate myself from its ranks.—I am, Sir, Sm.,
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