A CORRECTION.
[To TER EDITOR OE THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I have read your article of last week on the East Dorse: election with interest, but I do not think you know both sides of the question. Mr. Lyell was not succeeded by Ivor Guest ; he fought and won two elections. Then Captain Guest won, and is now unseated. At the first election Mr. Lyell had the Wimborne interest against him; he then polled some con- siderable number of votes ; at the second Lady Wimborne did help him ; he then got in by the very very much reduced number of 21 votes. Lady Wimborne simply changed her politics on the subject of Free-trade. She (as so many of us do) dreads Protection, as she knows what that would mean. We have fought so many elections both in East Dorset and in the borough of Wareham—where Mr. Montagu Guest, Liberal, was returned more than-once—that I feel entitled to speak on the subject, though I have no personal acquaintance with either Lady Wimborne or any of her family. It would be interesting to know why the very numerous Primrose League " treats " have not been mentioned; and I think a record of what the late Mr. Van Raalte spent in Poole would make Lady Wimborne's expenses fade into nothing. Until the so-called "Wimborne purse" was opened for the Liberal cause, no one on our side bad any money to spend. I could easily tell you of many, many rich people on the other side in East Dorset who for years and years have spent lavishly to support the Conservative cause in that place. I myself have seen the Conservative candidate stand at one door and his cousin at the other to ascertain how men voted, and I know places where even the parsons advise their people to let no cottages to Liberals,—one wrote to that effect in the Dorset County Chronicle after this last election was fought and won. I can assure you that you will never get purity of elections until canvassing and carrying to the polls are made illegal, and until no man is given a vote until he puts himself on the register, and that without being solicited to do so. At present it is a case of arcades ambo.—I am, Sir, arc.,
ONE WHO KNOWS.
[We regret that the writer of the leading article which appeared in our columns on Mr. Markham's speech erroneously wrote as if East Dorset had not returned a Liberal till the Wimborne family changed their party. Mr. Lyell, a Liberal, was returned in 1904, and again in 1906. We take no responsibility for our correspondent's statement in regard to the action of the clergy, and should, indeed, be very much surprised to find it substantiated.—En. Spectator.]
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