SIR ROUNDELL PALMER ON THE "RIGHT OF REBELLION."
[To ass EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sur,—Some fifty years ago I met Sir Roundell Palmer (after- wards Lord Selborne) at dinner, and the conversation took the then common line of a discussion on the American Civil War. In opposition to Sir Thomas Fremantle, Sir Roundell con- tended that in the main that war turned on the question of slavery; and he added that, whereas many of the Liberals whom he met in London society wished well to the Southern States, nearly all the Continental Liberals were in sympathy with the North. He further remarked that in England the Radicals, and especially the friends and disciples of Mill, were also on the Northern side. A remark which he then made is recalled to me by the first article in your issue of August 17th. " What most strikes me," he said, "in the arguments which we continually hear on this matter is that we find Extreme Liberals standing up for the Divine Right of Governments, and High Tories for the Divine Right of Rebellion."—I am,
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