only one which has printed your version of the
speech, and I must therefore decline to accept your statement. Of
course had the indefinite article been used it would have destroyed
any ground for complaint. As you are attempting to evade the
serious issue between us I can only conclude that your methods
indicate the "blustering artifice of the rhetorical hireling."
Unless I hear from you to the contrary I shall always maintain this
view.

I have sent a copy of this letter to the Press.

Yours truly,
N. Y. Z. THOMSON-THOMSON.

A. B. C. WENTWORTH-COKE, ESQ.

SIR,--My Secretary was much pained at your last letter. He has
informed me of its contents. I can only say that I am surprised
that a statesman of your undoubted ability should exhibit such
peculiar controversial methods.

The circumstances are not new. In 1911, in the House of Commons, I
find that I formulated the same opinion of you in substantially the
same words, yet no objection was then raised by you nor could any
objection have been so raised.

Since your election your attitude on every question has been
deplorable, and although I am of the opposite party I may say that
in this view I am in no sense actuated by party feeling. This is a
matter too serious for the bitterness of partisanship.

I repeat that in my opinion you have frequently employed the
blustering artifice of a rhetorical hireling.

Unless I hear from you within half-an-hour I shall send a copy of
this letter to the Press.

Yours faithfully,
A. B. C. WENTWORTH-COKE.

P.S.--Could you oblige me by letting me know who was the originator
of the phrase?

N. Y. Z. THOMSON-THOMSON, ESQ.

SIR,--You have totally failed to substantiate the serious charges
you made against me, and I am sorry, for the sweetness of political
life, that you have not had the courage or the fairness to withdraw
them.

I am glad that we have been able to conduct this correspondence on
the courteous lines which have ever characterised our public
careers.

I have sent a copy of this letter to the Press.

Yours faithfully,
N. Y. Z. THOMSON-THOMSON.

P