4 MAY 1912, Page 16

HOME RULE.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE °SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—You may think it worth while to print the appended extract from " Fuller's Worthies,"—I am, Sir, &e., F. C. G.

BARK-SHIRE PROVERBS.

" Bo that England will win Mud with Ireland first begin."

"This Proverb importoth that great designs must be managed pradatim, not only by degrees, but due method. England, it seems, is too great a morsel for a forreign foe to be chopped up at once; and therefore it must orderly be attempted, and Ireland be first assaulted. Seine have conceived, but it is but a conceit (all things being in the bosom of Divine Providence), that, had the Spanish armado in Eighty-eight fallen upon Ireland (when the well-affected therein were few and ill-provided), they would have given a better account of their service to him who sent them. To rectify which errour, the King of Spain sent afterward John d. Aquila into Ireland, but with what success is sufficiently known. Any if any foreign Enemy bath a desire to try the truth of this Proverb at his own peril, both England and Ireland lie for climate in the same posture they were before." * . , • Note in edition of 1811, "and happily for both countries in a state of natural union."