[TO TH1 EDITOR OP THN " SPROTATOR
SIR,—All who take an interest in politics are indebted to Mr. Maurice for his last letter to you. He says : "When a Judge actually declares a man guilty of adultery in the circumstances in which Mr. Parnell was so declared, I think that declaration a stronger ground for excluding him from public life than the inferences drawn by a Special Commission as to the effect of certain speeches in producing acts of violence." He does not give his reason for this view, and leaves it uncertain whether he regards the Special Commission less competent to decide the last point than the Judge in the Divorce Court to decide the first, or whether he means that the action was itself more wrong in the one case than the other. But in any case he brings out the issue which at this moment it behoves every one to ponder. The action of the English Home-rulers in re- pudiating Mr. Parnell, has committed them to the theory either that adultery is wrong in some sense in which responsi- bility for murder and maiming is not wrong, or that the Irish leader cannot prevent these actions going on, however he may try to do so. Which alternative will those who adhere
to them adopt P—I am, Sir, &c., IGNOTITS.
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