THE REFERENDUM.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—When I was a young Attache at Berne over fifty years back I was very much struck with what had been to me, previously, an unknown political institution, the Referendum, and wrote a short report on this to the Foreign Office. In this report I remember calling special attention to the curious fact that this extreme democratic measure, by which the votes of the whole male population might, and not infrequently did, reverse the decision of the Cantonal and Federal (as the case might be) Legislative Assemblies and Governments, had almost invariably a Conservative result. If it were adopted in Great Britain, why should it not have the same effect ? Thus would the " desperate dilemma " of Pro- tection or a Capital Levy be solved, for the issues are too tremendous for the patriotic and honest Free Trader to hesitate in his choice, feeling, as he will, that, even if he may be sacrificing his opinion, he is having a good chance of helping to save his country from the ruin which would follow its adoption of a Capital Levy and its sequel, inspired, as it very possibly may be under the present electoral system, by a minority of the population.—I am, Sir, &c., W. IIAGGARD.
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