LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN THE CABINET.
[To Tun Emma QF THR "SPECTATOR.' ] Sritt—ri quite agree with you that " religion has nothing to do with fitness for Cabinet office," and I know it is a delicate ques- tion to discuss in what fitness for Cabinet office really consists. Mr. Disraeli thought that Dukes possessed the proper quality in a pre-eminent degree. When Lord Hartington, who is a Duke ier pease, distinguished himself at the Post Office by abolishing the parcels' poet, he was promoted to the Castle, where he has already achieved the great feat of exciting the Phoenix Park riot, A Roman Catholic was appointed to suceeed him at the Post Office, and I believe it is admitted administers that department with efficient skill and energy. Five years before Lord Hartington even had a bleat in the House of Commons, the present Postmaster- General was chief of another department, the Ordnance, at the head of which he remained all through the Crimean war: What- ever other department broke down then, the Ordnance did not. I think the man who administered the Ordnance from 1852 to 1857, and who administers the Post Office now, in a period which tasks administrative capacity somewhat severely, must he an able minister. Whether a Cabinet ought to be composed of Dukes or sons of Dukes, or of able Ministers, is, however, a question, beyond my intelligence and my knowledge of the Constitution. Nevertheless, I am persuaded that if Lord Hartington were an Irish Catholic country gentleman, he would not even be a Junior Lord of the Treasury just yet ; and I believe that if Mr. Mansell were, like Mr. Corry, an Ulster Protestant, he would long ago have had a seat in the Cabin6t.
It is to be particularly regretted, I think, that at a time when the delicate question of Catholic education in Ireland is about to be considered in the Cabinet, the opinions of the Irish Catholics should not be in any way represented there. I believe the solu- tion of that great difficulty would be much more easy, if they were so represented. Whether as a medium or as a buffer, Lord Hartiugton is hardly the right man in the right place. To fashion anew the Irish mind is a great enterprise. Every one who knows much of Irish politics will confirm what your correspondent' " F." says of the singular freedom from reli- gious bigotry of the Irish Catholic constituencies. I could easily elite twenty cases where they deliberately preferred Protestant candidates, simply because they believed that they could prove more capable and more respectable representatives. Mr, Forteecue
in a very Catholic county has again mid again come in at the head of the poll, either defeating or surpassing a Catholic candi- date, and always having with him the support of the Catholic Primate and the bulk of the Catholic clergy.--I am, Sir, &c.,
AN ULSTER CATHOLIC,
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