26 FEBRUARY 1910, Page 16

UNDUE INFLUENCE.

MO THE EDITOR or THE "Spzcwros.'1 SIE,—Referring to the letter of the Rev. F. G. Montagu: Powell in your last issue, may I give my experience as a tradesman and voter in the same division of Hampshire ? Perhaps my experience is more valuable as evidence from the fact that I am a Liberal Unionist Free-trader and my vote has been an uncertain quantity, so that I have bad a fair opportunity of noticing intimidation if it existed. I was only once during the late fight asked by a customer how I was going to vote, and that was quite in an inoffensive way. Perhaps if Mr. Powell had inquired in another part of the borough—say Winton—he would have found the Unionist tradesmen badgered in the same way as he describes. No, Sir, tradesmen are not such a feeble lot; we vote as we like, and certainly do not give away our voice in the government of the country for the sake of gaining or losing a customer, and interference is considered impertinent and intolerable.—I am,