[TO THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR."] :SLR, —It is, I know,
dangerous to attempt to answer even so courteous an editor as your own impersonal self. May I there- fore say that I in great part agree with your article in the Spectator of July 29th on " Christianity and Empire "P I only fail to see in what sense the part in which you do me the honour of referring to my letter can at all be said to answer it. I met your statement of our present lack of tone in governing by a direct negative, and gave several examples to prove that those who act for the Empire just now are not at all afraid of their enemies, nor of assuming tremendous responsibilities. Tory and Liberal Governments have con- sented to learn from each other, and our Imperial policy is strong and, on the whole, consistent.
Those of us who follow Mr. Gladstone believe, rightly or wrongly, that Home-rule for Ireland will strengthen the Empire by giving "peace at home," and by taking the bitter- ness out of religious and class differences in Ireland. I was visiting in my parish yesterday, when an Irishman from Bel- fast, an old soldier, stopped me and asked me alms. He told me he was the only Irish Protestant "on the road" in this neighbourhood. I tried to get a shilling's-worth of informa- tion out of him before I gave him my shilling. He thought the greatest of all the ills of Ireland was religious bigotry. He ventured to say, evidently fearing that my heart might grow hard towards him, that if this Home-rule Bill passed, the religious bigotry would also gradually pass out of Irish life. I relieved him by telling him I was a Home-ruler. He almost danced with delight, and prayed God to bless me, after the manner of such travellers, ending with :—" You, a Church Parson, and a Home-ruler ! May you and Mr. Gladstone go to heaven together ! " However dangerous the present Home-rule Bill may be, I think the opposition to it will be wiser, and stronger too, if it acknowledges that the real strength of the movement in its favour is a desire to do right, and a belief that England is strong enough and calm enough to do a noble and a generous act, even if some of her children think it a sign of weakness or decay. I do not say that we may rightly apply the blessing given to the meek to a nation acting thus, for we have gained our Empire by very different processes.; but I do hope that some of the principles which we are applying to politics in England and America are tending to such a possession of the earth as true meekness
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