MR. GREG'S "POLITICAL, PROBLEMS."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—While thanking you for your kindly and appreciative notice of my book as a whole, I must beg leave respectfully to protest against the misapprehension of one portion of it, which is contained in the last paragraph of your criticism. I in nu way "advised the Liberal leaders to condone or permit financial extravagance in order to conciliate the favour of the new electors." I only warned them against seeking popularity with a constituency of householders by arguments and self-recommendations which were suitable enough when addressed to a constituency of ten-pounders; against fancying that the same condemnatory views of lavish Government expenditure would be taken by the classes on whom the taxes are spent, as by the classes by whom the taxes are paid ; against assuming that retrenchment and parsimony are virtues per se, or will ever be accepted as prima facie claims to popular admiration by the working-men whose employment they limit, and whose remune- ration they cut down. I simply pointed out what is undeniably true, —that for them " efficiency " would be both a sounder and wiser, and a more telling watchword, as far as the masses were concerned, than "mere economy " ; that any practicable or judicious reduc- tion in the outlay of the great public departments could not appreciably diminish the labourers' contributions to the revenue, and might very sensibly and painfully diminish his weekly earn- ings; that, in fine, "three-fourths of all extra expenditure on the national defences are paid by the rich and bestowed upon the poor," are taken out of the pockets of the upper and middle-classes, and find their way into the pockets of the labouring classes. Is the fact not so ? And if it be so, is not the conclusion I drew from that fact quite unassailable ? Let Liberals be vigilant guardians of the public purse, and set their faces resolutely against all wasteful expenditure ; it is their clear duty. But let them not push their retrenching policy further than strict conscience com- mands, under the delusion that they will gain popularity among the lower order of electors by doing so.—I am, Sir, &c., W. R. GREG.
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