LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE NORTH LEEDS ELECTION.
[TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE 'SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Referring in the Spectator of August 2nd to Mr. Rowland Barran's victory at Leeds, you say : " A Unionist majority of 2.517 has been converted into a Home-rule majority of 758." Surely this is incorrect. Mr. Barran, whatever else he may be, is certainly not a Home-ruler. He is, on the contrary, a member of the Liberal League, and he maintains the principles of the Liberal League. He had the courage to defy the Nationalist party, and was in fact proscribed from the Irish headquarters as a candidate. How, then, can his be called a " Home-rule majority " P—I am, Sir, &c., I. X. E.
[Possibly our correspondent is right; but Mr. Barran, unless we are mistaken, publicly declared that he owed his victory to having united all the elements in the Liberal party in North Leeds. Unless, then, there are few or no Liberal Home-rulers in North Leeds, our statement was not so entirely incorrect as our correspondent asserts. We wonder, too, whether Mr. Barran absolutely and unreservedly repudiates Home-rule as Unionists do. We know, of course, that he is not an active Home-ruler, but we greatly doubt if he would pledge himself never to vote for Home-rule, and we are sure that many Home- rulers voted for him.—En. Spectator.]
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