LORD ROSEBERY'S LETTER TO THE " TIMES."
(To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."'
Sta,—As a constant reader of the Spectator, I hope you will spare me a small space in your valuable paper for a few words in support of Lord Rosebery's letter to the Times of the 16th. inst. Unless his suggestion is adopted—viz., that the Unionist Party should drop, at any rate temporarily, their proposals for Tariff Reform—I cannot see how there is the slightest chance of the decision of the country being different at the impending Election from what it was in January. As far as Lancashire and Yorkshire are concerned, Free-trade was undoubtedly the cause of the daticle of the Unionist cause this year, as in 1906. The electors here are convinced, whether rightly or wrongly, that their vital interests are involved in maintaining Free-trade. In addition to this, they have a strong sentimental attachment to its principles and name, and in politics as well as in everyday matters the influence of sentiment can hardly be exaggerated. Lancashire and Yorkshire together return over one hundred Members to Parliament, no small proportion of the whole House of Commons, and as a proof of what a change has been produced in their political views since Mr. Chamberlain converted the official Unionist Party to Tariff Reform, I should like to draw your attention to the following facts. In 1900—i.e., at the Election immediately preceding Mr. Chamberlain's first Tariff Reform speech in Birmingham—Lancashire and Yorkshire together returned seventy Unionists to thirty-eight Radicals. At the last Election, in spite of many avowed Free-traders voting Unionist owing to the other important issues at stake, the return was thirty Unionists to seventy-eight Radicals.
I know the Tariff Reformer's reply to this is the great progress that the Unionist cause made at the last Election in the county divisions. But is there any proof that this pro- gress was due to the advocacy of Tariff Reform P The Unionist Members are even here no more numerous than in 1900, and it seems to me that all the county divisions have done is to show their dislike to the revolutionary proposals of the present Government and revert to their colour of 1900, which they had temporarily changed owing to the undoubtedly inefficient condition of Mr. Balfour's Government during its latter years. I am perfectly convinced that the average country voter cares nothing about Tariff Reform. He usually admits to not understanding the subject in the slightest. This, at any rate, cannot be said of the average voter in Lancashire and Yorkshire. With Ireland, Scotland, and Wales so enormously anti-Unionist, I cannot see how the Unionist Party can ever expect to return to power unless their present forlorn position in Lancashire and Yorkshire can he remedied, and this I maintain can only be done by dropping Tariff Reform, at any rate temporarily, as Lord
Rosebery suggests.—I am, Sir, &c., GEO. B. BEHRENS. 16 Oxford Street, Manchester.
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