MR. LECKY AND HOME RULE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIB,—May I be allowed to say a few words in reply to the letter of Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Cruise O'Brien in last Saturday's Spectator ? They refer me to their introduction, but I see nothing there that affects my contention. I am ready to believe that they intended no disrespect to Mr. Lecky's memory, although they acted contrary to his wishes. They say, in their introduction, that they republished the old essay on " Clerical Influences " partly " because it has now become a literary curiosity," and partly because, by applying some of its arguments to the present situation, they thought it might serve the Nationalist cause; and they endeavour to justify their action by explaining away Mr. Lecky's own mature views on his early immature writings. In their analysis of the essay, which is printed verbatim, they overlook the fact that Mr. Lecky speaks in it repeatedly of " two possible solutions" of Irish discontent, one of these being "a complete fusion of the people of Ireland with the people of England." Moreover, he does not say that "a healthy national feeling," free from disloyalty as well as sectarian animosity, would be the sure consequence of self-government, but that the existence of such a feeling was the only condition on which self-government could be safely granted. Other- wise " her [Ireland's] power would be at once an evil to herself and to England. Her independence would be the dismember- ment of the Empire." Those words are as true to-day as fifty years ago when they were written, but they will scarcely sup- port Mr. Lloyd's and Mr. O'Brien's argument. May I say, in conclusion, that the letter of Mr. Samuels in last Saturday's Spectator throws an instructive light on the whole question P So does Cardinal Logue's Lenten Pastoral, which has not received in England the attention which it deserves.—I am, Sir, &c., ELISABETH LECKY. [We gladly publish Mrs. Lecky's letter, but cannot find space for any more correspondence on this subject. —ED. Spectator.]
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