LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE AMERICAN ELECTIONS.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR:1 SIE,—In the Spectator of December 5th you refer to some figures of Mr. Hardy in the Fortnightly Review, which figures give to Mr. McKinley "twenty times the majority which seated Mr. Cleveland." Mr. Cleveland's majority over General Harrison was 380,810; Major McKinley's over Mr. Bryan was 592,666. The latest returns of the total vote that I have seen are given in a leading article on December 1st in the Washington Post, a " gold " McKinley journal. The figures are : for McKinley, 7,044,884; for Bryan, 6,452,218. The opinion which still seems to be held here, that Mr. Bryan was overwhelmingly defeated, is likely to make political developments in the United States even more unintelligible than usual. The Democratic party a year since was so divided and disheartened that its annihilation at the polls seemed certain. The party came out, however, for "free silver," and succeeded in polling 47 per cent. of the total vote cast. It is absurd to suppose that this party will fail to persevere with free silver after a success so phenomenal. If from the forty-five States of the Union you exclude New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, then in the remain- ing forty-two States, with sixty millions of people, Mr. Bryan secured a majority of the total votes cast. The largest vote ever before cast for a President of the United States was Mr. Cleveland's vote of five and a half millions in 1892. Mr. Bryan's vote is 895,300 in excess of Mr. Cleveland's.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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