LETTERS TO THE' EDITOR.
MR. GLA.DSTONE.
[To T81E EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."' ilt,—Why do you constantly speak of Mr. G ladstone's " magnificent " energy, " magnificent " courage, or what not, when a few lines after you truly say that be is "kept in power lay bribes to this section, and bribes to that section, of the community " P—in which surely lies no " magnificence," unless in the sense in whieh Napoleon was " a splendid sinner." Either Mr. Gladstone is a senile politician, or a statesman gone so astray that the only exclamation possible is " Ce n'est pas la politique, et ce n'est pas magnifique." The Demos knows not its own history, or the " opera-bouffe " that has had so tedious a run at St. Stephens, would long ago have been hissed off the stage. To see a Scotch terrier, urged on by Irish tykes, insult the English mastiff, reminds one .of Landseer's " Dignity and Impudence,"--nothing higher. Magnificence ! Bahl One is clothed with shame !
As a nation we sentimentalise about Irish Fenianism and Roman Catholicism, when we should treat them justly and otraightforwardly as we do in England,—no more and no less. It is Barthelemy St. Hilaire who reminds us that, when in a ,minority, the Romish Church demands equality-, when in a ssaajority, she claims domination. Samson in his strength -dallied with his enemies, and was amused by them ; but in the 'end his locks were shorn,—" h bon entendeur un demi-mot."
[We like to call things by their right names. Mr. Glad-
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