In Thursday's Times, Mr. Robert McGeagh writes to ask Mr.
Gladstone whether Mr. Andrew Lang, in his Life of Lord Iddesleigh, had correctly stated that, in 1852, Mr. Glad- stone removed the late Mr. James Hope Scott from the position of a trustee and executor under his will on hearing that Mr. Rope Scott had joined the Church of Rome, and presum- ably, therefore, because he had joined the Church of Rome, Mr, MeG eagh points out that, if this statement be true, the people of Ulster would think it very strange that, while Mr. Gladstone would not trust a Roman Catholic bound to him by ties of cordial friendship in private affairs, he is now willing to trust the Irish Roman Catholic priesthood with a dominant influence over the property and welfare of the Irish minority. Mr. Gladstone, in reply, does not answer the question, but only asks for evidence that he had ever done what was imputed to him. Surely he must know whether or not he was reluctant to trust his property in the hands of a Roman Catholic, or otherwise. If he did this, he must once have felt a great deal more sympathy with the Protestant panic than it deserved ; and yet he shows a great deal less consideration for it now than he ought to show, if he ever shared this Ulster panic.
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