SORTES LECKYANIE.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."' Sin,—It is strange that your correspondent, "V.," does not perceive that it is he, and not I, who has fitted Mr. Lecky's cap upon the heads of the Gladstonian leaders. It is quite- true that in a passage containing a long list of questionable political practices, Mr. Lecky illustrates one of these by a. clear allusion to Mr. Gladstone. But it is equally certain that the bribery of classes there referred to, might just as well have been illustrated from half-a-dozen other sources. The very number of the Spectator in which " Y.'s " letter- appeared, furnished timely proof of the fact. For it appears, from evidence there given, that the bribe of the "cheap loaf ''' during the recent elections was impartially used by both parties, and that such procedure points very well the moral of Mr. Lecky's much-needed warning.
I think, therefore, that " Y.'s " political friends—for I infer him to be a Gladstonian—will hardly thank him for so hastily assuming that Mr. Lecky's lofty and statesmanlike words were directed against one particular party. And lam even more sure that right-minded men of all parties will resent his dragging in allusions to Mr. Lecky's religious opinions for the purpose of discrediting his political judgments.—I am, Sir, &c., A. A.
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