WHAT IS LIBERALISM ?
[To TER EDITOR OF TRY " sreors-nou'] Sin.,—I am afraid you did not let your intelligence play very freely round the subject of Lord Hartington's relation to the Liberal Party before penning your leader of February 19th. What is a Liberal ? Not, I take it, a man who is pre- pared to vote for this or that, or any particular measure, but a man who believes in the government of the people by the people: and has the courage of his opinions. Now, Ireland, through her- properly elected representatives, has, with scarcely a dissentient voice, declared for Home-rule ; and this being so, I cannot see how any one who refuses her demand can consistently call himself a Liberal, however firmly he may— "believe in Freedom's cause, Es far away en Paris is."
Then for your illustration. The John Williams New Connexion Methodists consist, we will say, of one-fiftieth of the whole. body of New Connexion Methodists,—a far too liberal allowance.. What are the proportions in the case of the Liberal Party and the " Glatletonians ?" Both the principle and the numbers are with us, and yet you olaim in effect to be the true Israel 1 Permit me to remind you, Sir, of the old Scotch lady who regarded the true Kirk as composed of herself andJock Anderson, —and VMS not " ower sure o' Jock."—I am, Sir, &o.,
PRINCE WHITAKER.
[No sound Liberal has ever held this principle in the absolute way laid down by our correspondent. Liberals hold that for coun- tries with a separate history and with a people constitutionally developed, such a principle applies ; but Ireland has neither separate history, nor is her constitutional development such as to justify giving her people a separate democratic government of their own. As we understood Mr. Gladstone's argument for Irish household suffrage in 1885, he himself was inclined to hold this,. for he argued that the Irish minority, if oppressed and over- borne by the majority, would be represented in the House of Commons by the great majority of the British representatives. That seems to us an admission that though it was safe to treat Ireland as part of the democracy of the United Kingdom, it was not safe, historically speaking, to treat her as if she were in a condition for Home-rule.—En. Spectator.]
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