LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
Lai./ DUTY OF UNIONIST FREE-TRADERS.
[To rag EDITOR 07 TRH " SPHCTATOR.1
have read, heard, and considered various arguments why Unionist Free-traders should -vote for Protectionists at this Election only. They have failed to convince me that a Free-trader who sincerely thinks Free-trade is in danger is bound to abstain from supporting Free-trade because he is also a Unionist, or for any other reason ; and I shall accord- ingly give all the support I can to the cause of Free-trade, including cheerful support to Liberal candidates opposed by Tariff Reformers. It will give me a particular pleasure, to be sure, to vote for Lord Hugh Cecil in the University of Oxford ; but as I shall disregard ecclesiastical and other differences of opinion with Lord Hugh, so I hold myself free to disregard, for example, possible differences in political details with Mr. Methuen in the Guildford Division of Surrey. As for Home-rule and Socialism, all I have to say is that I do not for one moment trust Tariff Reformers to protect us from. either of them. As for the House of Lords, I feel bound as a Unionist (which means and includes, as I take it, a general attachment to the established political Constitution of these kingdoms) to oppose the most audacious attempt to subvert - the foundations of Parliamentary government which has been made since the Revolution of 1688. I do not presume to judge other Unionist Free-traders who take different views. We have agreed to respect one another's convictions, retain- ing freedom to act on our own.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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