FEDERATION FOR THE BRITISH ISLES.
[To ThZ EDITOR OP xIIi " SPECTATOR:1
Snt,—As one of your Scottish eonstituents, I venture to trouble you with a few remarks called forth by the article in your issue of August 6th upon the proposed federation of
the British Islands, a scheme which I am glad to observe that you mean to fight to the death. You rightly state that it is
worth while to consider what is the real and ultimate cause of such an ignominious proposition, and you suggest that the worry of Irish disaffection is the source of the disturbance.
Of course every one must admit that Irish disaffection is a
most important factor in the national unrest ; but you make no hint as to the cause of that disaffection, and I venture to think that most of your readers will agree with me in think- ing that here the true and ultimate disintegrating element is to be found in the profound religious convictions of the Irish people. Had the Imperial Parliament in times gone by shown more sympathetic consideration for our Irish fellow- subjects, had their priests been suitably endowed and their prelates duly honoured; it is extremely improbable that there would have been any serious disaffection in the isle of saints. Were it not for the fanatics in England, and particularly in Scotland, this is an evil which might perhaps even now be redressed.
With regard to the ignoble memorandum lately subscribed• by some of the Scottish Members of Parliament, and pointing to "Home-rule all round," it will be observed that therein particular exception is taken to the existence of a Chamber of hereditary legislators ; and here also, if one looks below the surface, it will be seen that religion is the main disintegrating element. Although the Scottish Presbyterian Church is established by law and honoured by the State, it is a painful fact that many of the Scottish nobility show little sympathy
with its ministers. Not infrequently a Scottish Peer residing in the vicinity of a village with a church wherein his ancestors
have provided him with a seat will erect hard by an Episcopal or a Roman Catholic place of worship wherein he and his family May shrive themselves in dignified seclusion from their
fellow-Scots. Now it goes without saying that those whose office it is to rule and to lead mankind cannot afford to choose their own form of worship without practically abnegating their higher functions. Hence the Scottish nobility have very much lost touch with the marrow of the nation. This also is an evil which might be redressed were it not that some folk seem to be born blind.
Yet again, the ignorant majority in Scotland have got it into their stupid heads that the House of Lords was responsible for the monstrous political folly of the Government which led to the disruption of the Scottish Church in 1843, and to all the subsequent misery and heart-burning. This of course is nonsense ; but it is absolutely safe to say that had a Beacons- field been then at the helm, and had the Church of Scotland been allowed in 1843 to have its own way, there would not have been to-day a single Home-ruler returned to Parliament from the north side of the Tweed.
I have written at greater length than I intended, but as a true Soot I regard the Treaty of Union in 1707 as the most beneficent event that ever occurred in my native land, and sorrow upon those political renegades who for their own petty ends would dare to tamper with it —I am, Sir, ere.,
Previous page
