rlb ran EDITOR OF TIER "SPECTA1OR.'] SIR,—I hope you will
not refuse to insert this letter from the other side. Yon are very triumphant over the " No sur- render " section of the Conservative Party, but I doubt whether you are aware how strong in their favour is the feel- ing throughout the country. The action which you extol so highly of the peers who have deserted their comrades has choked down the enthusiasm of the fighting section of the Conservative Party even more than the futile ambiguities of Mr. Balfour on Tariff Reform formerly did, and many
votes—mine for one—will not be at his service, though no one is a stauncher Tory than I am. If Home Rule comes— and I have no doubt it will now—and if Ulster resists by force, then, and then only, will the Tory Party (I trust under more inspiring leaders) have a chance of overthrowing this Government. The spiritual lords by their vote have brought Disestablishment and secular education appreciably nearer. Can anyone think that if, two or three years hence, this Government goes to the country with a sheaf of Bills—Home Rule, Disestablishment, Abolition of Plural Voting, Secular Education, Women's Suffrage, perhaps Adult Suffrage, National Insurance, together with fresh and unscrupulous methods of taxing the rich and industrious classes, and pander- ing to the Trade Unionists and Socialists—can anyone think that with such a gigantic log-rolling programme as that they would be defeated at the polls ?
A new body of 500 peers—of worth and substance, for I suppose the King could at least have held out for thatae would very soon have shown themselves stiffnecked against predatory and extreme legislation. You that have won this runaway battle must rally your forces as best you may Scilicet acrior miles redibit. Those who laugh list laugh best, and the Radical Party have the laugh on their side, and they very heartily approve your action. Was it not Napoleon who said, "Beware of your servants when the enemy praises them "? In such a case as this the approbation of our deadly enemies is tantamount to the strongest condemnation of the act.
When Bazaine made 172,000 gallant Frenchmen lay down their arms at Metz he no doubt had Many fine reasons to show that surrender was inevitable, but he ruined the hopes of lljance. Gordon could have taken himself out of Khartum to a place of safety, as Gladstone so chivalrously expected him to do, but his death led to the conquest and civilization of the Soudan. Your bitter gibes about shouting in the last ditch, contemptible as they were, will not soon be forgotten ; but what shall we say of those who shouted till the last ditch and then sneaked back for fear of crossing it ? Not in that way did Wellington take Badajos, but it was in that way that Whitelock lost to England the rich inheritance of the Brazils. " A plague on all such cowards r and" A plague on both your [We have no desire to deny a hearing to those of our readers who criticise our comments on the passage of the Parliament Bill in the Lords, and out of the letters received we print two as representative of this hostile criticism, but we do not propose to continue a correspondence which can serve no use- ful purpose at this juncture. The task before the Unionist Party is one of concentration, not recrimination.—En. Spectator.]
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