Punch (71.1876)

224

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[November 25, 1876.

THE TOO COMPLETE LETTER-WRITER.

During the last two months Me. Gladstone has heen employing
the time he is able to spare from public speaking and tree-felling to
the answering of a very miscellaneous collection of correspondents.
His replies have ranged from Bulgarian outrages up to Vaccination
5_ grievances. Always ready to oblige a fellow-litterateur, Mr.
Punch begs to supply the ex-Premier with a few ready-made
responses, founded upon Mr. Gladstone's well-known style, and
in sympathy with his published opinions :—

Reply to a Conscientious Doubter.

Sir,—Your touching and deeply interesting acknowledgment of
doubts as to the principle of gravitation the soundness of Kepler's
" !f • laws, the Newtonian system generally, and even so generally ac-

cepted a doctrine as that of the sphericity of our globe, are before
me. Without committing myself to an endorsement1 of your particular grounds of scepticism on those points, most of which are
lazily taken for granted by ordinary minds with as little inquiry into, as appreciation of the scientific grounds on which they are
maintained, I may be allowed to express my genuine sympathy with doubts which do as much credit to your head as to your heart.
I am not one of those who find it easier to tolerate the hardness of the one than the softness of the other. All candid and honest
inquirers have my profound respect; and I am flattered by being made the recipient of your doubts, if my numerous avocations do
not just now leave me the leisure to weigh, still less to resolve them. yours very faitnfuiiV) W< E. Gladstone.

Reply to a would-be Suicide.

Sir,—-In your interesting communication (which I now acknowledge) you ask me "if I consider suicide justifiable?" This is a
wide question, both from the moral,rpolitical, and social point of view, and cannot be answered off-hand. Still, I must admit I
regard with suspicion the operation of any law interfering with the liberty of the subject on this or any other point, and should be
ready to consider any relaxation of its provisions which now operate in restraint of the/e/o de se. j am &c<

W. E. Gladstone.

Reply to a Firm of Wine Merchants.

. vMe-. Gladstone presents his compliments to Messrs. Fusil, Fuchsine & Co./and begs to say that he has not had the time nor the
inclination to test the samples submitted to him. Port is not one of Mr. Gladstone's favourite wines. He is therefore unable to say
■whether the pint bottles that have been forwarded to him contain a liquor " infinitely less heady and immeasurably more fruity than
the concoction known as ' fine old Tory Port.' " Mr. Gladstone must add, however, that, without any wish to convert the matter
into a party question, he'ean, from his present point of view, consider nothing Tory either useful or ornamental.