THE LIBERAL CLERGY AND HOME-RULE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."'
SIR,—Yon have endeavoured to formulate a theory which you
believe will account for the small effect produced by Whig argu- ments upon the Liberal clergy. That the effect has been small is a fact as to which I am happy to add my own testimony to yours. I should be still more happy if the Spectator, which has spoken many a cheering and helping word for those who have been striving to raise the work of Churchmen above the influence of class-feeling and modern society, had so far retained its clearness of view as to see the real cause of the phenomenon which has excited its surprise. I speak only for myself, but I believe that I shall speak the mind of most of the Liberal clergy when I say that we are faithful to our leader because we believe that the Whigs represent now, as they have in the past, the spirit of selfishness, and that Mr. Gladstone has set before us the path of justice.
Christianity has always kept alive in nations the claim to
freedom and equality of legal rights. Revival of national life ought, therefore, always to be welcomed by the Church as being in accordance with the first principles of the Gospel of Christ. If it has not always been so, it has been because the Church herself has been so fettered by worldly systems that she could not see where justice lay, or be generous enough to risk her worldly position by raising her voice for the right. We all acknowledge that Ireland has been treated with gross injustice in the past. She has not had equal laws ; she has been burdened with alien institutions. Her native people cry out for the right to govern themselves and to receive back, so far as is consistent with Imperial obligations, the control of her domestic affairs. We say that, we English having proved a failure so that for very shame we refuse any longer to use the rod, we have no right to reject the claim of those who come to desire the Constitutional way, and say, " We wish to govern ourselves."
That Mr. Gladstone's proposals did or did not involve an out-
lay of the national sixpences does not weigh with us. Our fathers have taken enough out of Ireland to spend in England, and the second commandment may remind us that it is not inconsistent with Divine justice that the children should be called upon to pay a little back. We have sufficient confidence in the loyalty of the nation to fear no serious difficulty with Ulster ; and even if we had a little trouble, it might serve to remind us of the cicumstances under which the said people were planted in their colony. None are so ready to be unjust as they who have profited by injustice.
America has won back her Southern States within the last four years by mercy and charity ; she has forgiven and forgotten, and is reaping the blessed fruits of President Hayes's righteous gift of Home-rule. Let England not be left behind in Christian conduct by her children, and she will find that the most profitable, as well as the most righteous policy, is " to do as you would be done by."
Because I believe Mr. Gladstone is striving in this spirit, he has had the humble but ready vote of yours, &c., A RADICAL CURATE.
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