12 DECEMBER 1885, Page 12

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. ") SIR,—Will you allow me

space to very emphatically contradict a statement made in a letter, signed 11. M. Wallis, which appeared in your issue of December 5th. In enumerating the causes which, in his opinion, led' to the defeat of Mr. Lefevre, he says,—" Our Liberal Churchmen abstained or ratted." I am in a position to say that more than nine-tenths of them voted for Mr. Lefevre, and a considerable number were among the hardest workers for the Liberal cause. Mr. Wallis is, I believe, a comparative stranger to Reading ; but he might at least have ascertained the true facts of the case before making such unfounded accusations in the columns of an influential newspaper.—I am, Sir, &e.,