" A TORY LORDLING."
[To rum Eonos or nue n Srsorrroa."] Sts,—Referring to your review of my book, " A Tory Lordling," I must ask you to let me say a few words. Your reviewer chooses to assume, because in describing a political atheist I have taken some incidents from the career of Mr. Bradlaugh, that therefore I intend the whole character to be that of Mr. Brad- laugh. I wish emphatically to deny this. I have, I am sorry to say, met a good many atheists, and have formed a general opinion of the tendency, both moral and political, of their creed— or rather discreed ; and I have absolutely, of my own knowledge, found consequences such as those which have shocked your reviewer, flowing directly from atheism ; but of Mr. Bradlaugh, in his private life, I know nothing, and I must repeat again that, excepting in the matter of politics, I had no thought of him while writing the book.
I should like to point out also that I nowhere in the book allude to a Conservative as a " common brute "—as your reviewer says. I speak of a " common brute Conservative," which is a very different matter. I am sure any one who reviews for your paper must be sufficiently a scholar to know the difference between the word " brute " as an adjective and as a noun.—I
am, Sir, &c., " BLINKHOOLIE," Author of "A Tory Lordling." [We have no quarrel with "Blinkhoolie's " views of the probable consequences of atheism, but we object to- an unfair attack upon any individual atheist; and as only one atheistic politician has ever administered the Parliamentary oath to him- self, it was impossible not to believe that John Aspland was intended for Mr. Bradlaugh, though, of course, we accept " Blink- hoolie's " repudiation. We do not know the difference between the word " brute " used as an adjective and as a noun, and we acknowledge that we made the slip pointed out by " Blinkhoolie." But surely the difference is a trifle in the face of the fact that he describes the "common brute Conservative" as one who " exceeds all other political persons in infamy." This is worse than being a brute in any sense of the word.—En. Spectator.]
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