THE MARQUIS OF BATH AND MR. GLADSTONE.
[To TUE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Yon suggest that Mr. Gladstone should recognise the eminent services of the Marquis of Bath to the cause of freedom in the controversy on the Eastern Question by offering him one of the vacant Garters. You forget that the Garter is too dignified a prize to offer where there is a probability of its being refused; and Mr. Gladstone is probably aware that Lord Bath would accept no honour from the present Government ; if for no other reason, because he has felt it his duty on various occasions to separate himself from his own party in order to support Mr. Gladstone's Government. It was understood at the time that he declined office in the late Government because he had no inclination to surrender his independence by following an official career. Mr. Gladstone probably knows Lord Bath's character too well to offer him an honour which might look, little as it would be so intended, like throwing a fly over a political opponent with a view to land him on the terra firma of Liberalism.—I am,
Previous page
