LORD CARNARVON AND MR. BRIGHT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 46, 23 February 1881, Page 4

LORD CARNARVON AND MR. BRIGHT.

Earl Carnarvon writes a long letter to Mr Bright in reference to a, speech of his upon the aristocracy and the land laws> in which he says :—" You are pleased to tell us that the House of Lords cannot be a permanent institution in a free country ; but as you have appealed so largely to 'history,M may remind you that it has already lived its centuries, exceeding in duration even the House of Commons ; thai; it is inseparably intermingled with some of the proudest memories of the English nation — of her greatest statesmen, captains, lawyers^ Churchmen ; and that though it has been often threatened by orators not inferior to yourself, it has outlived their denunciations, as ,1 hope it will outlive yours. You hav|e often preached a crusade against 'aristocracy,' whether as a class or a principle ; but the class will probably long survive both you and me, and all the generations to whom your speech was addressed ; and the principle in its best sense is as true a part of nature and as indestructible now that the world is old as when it was young* The desire to found a family, the pride in ancestral renown, the ambition to crown past with present honors, will be now, as they have been in all times, the noblest inducements to noble action, and if ever there was an assembly which, subject to the defects of all human institutions, was the goal and property of all the popular and democratic excellencies that have sprung into being under that constitution which you apparently desire to revolutionize, it is the House of Lords." Mr. Bright has addressed the following reply to the letter of tbe Sari of Carnarvon : " Rochdale, 25th December, 1880. Your letter of the Bth December, which appeared in the London papers of yesterday morning, reached me last night. You comment on my speech of the 16th November, and find in it terrible blemishes which have not been discovered by its critics in this country. You condemn me for attacks on the Sovereign, the aristocracy, and the landowners. I have defended the monarchy. The defence is little needed in this country and in this reign. I have warned the aristocracy of the danger I wibu them to shun. As to| landowners, I have been one of the; most prominent of the supporters of ajpolicy so necessary for the country, and so wise for them, that, had it; been obstinately resisted, the great j landowners of England and Scotland wowld long ago have been running for their lives as some Irish landowners are reported to be doing now. I will not reply at length to your letter ; it is enough to acknowledge the receipt of it. I am content to leave my speech and your letter to the judgment of the public —I am yours respectfully,; John Bbight. The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon, Madeira.