TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY NEWS.”

Sir,—I have watched with interest, and I trust with an open mind, the debate to which my last letter to you on this subject has given rise in the press. It leads me to hope that the question has taken hold upon the public attention, and that the nation will exercise in this grave and urgent matter the deliberation and forecast which a part of the governing class, under the tuition of The Times, seems to have almost abjured. The leading journal has indeed waged war against “thinkers” for a quarter of a century, with no questionable success. The politicians over whose minds it has exercised an almost undisputed sway have, under its most skilful treatment, become “animals” of small “discourse,” “looking” neither “before” nor “after,” priding themselves on their “common sense,” and taking common sense to consist in eschewing thought, and exaggerating the casual notion or passion of the hour. Their perilous tampering with the tremendous question of Parliamentary Reform was the natural result of such a training. I am most willing to be called a “thinker,” or, if possible, worse names, if I can contribute even in the slightest degree towards inducing however small a section of the public to exercise forecast in politics, to study our position in the community of nations, its changes, and its necessities; to mark the ways of Providence, and subdue ambition to them; and to lay, by deliberate action on intelligible principles, the solid foundations of happiness and greatness.