LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
LESSONS OF THE BIRMINGHAM AND ROCHESTER ELECTIONS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your article on the Birmingham and Rochester elections justly draws attention to the importance of the result in the one case, and its comparative insignificance in the other.
There is, however, an element of some ethical importance in the case of Rochester (though the constituency is very inferior to Central Birmingham in numbers and in education), —viz., that at least two or three of the nominators of the Gladstonite candidate were professed Liberal Unionists. How they, in the present position of affairs, and in spite of the recommendation of Lord Hartington (whom they admire), could recommend a supporter of Mr. Gladstone's Home-rule policy to the electors, is to me inexplicable.
I can only suppose that, in less educated constituencies, the reluctance to carry out a patriotic compact (as was so successfully done, in spite of party preferences, at Bir- mingham), arises partly from inability to appreciate its ethical basis, partly from the narrowing influence of local prejudices : anyhow, the evil result is shown in the recrimina- tions between party leaders at Birmingham, who naturally feel it hard that their good example is not imitated elsewhere. If only the men who swim with the stream could be brought to realise that "the new Liberalism" is, in the words of Lord Brabourne, " not progressive but retrograde ;" that, in fact, the Gladstonite or ultramarine Liberalism is modelled on ultramontane Catholicism (nor is there the same excuse for exclusiveness in politics as in theology) ! The Glad- stonites appear to have borrowed from their model the denial of " the right of private judgment ;" while they have introduced the processes of the " Inquisition " into their canvassing ; their Index Expurgatorius embraces not books, but such men as Lords Derby and Hartington, Messrs. Goschen and Chamberlain, and the late John Bright ; and their latest dogma is the " infallibility " of Mr. Gladstone. Surely, now that they have adopted as their watchword, " One Man, one Vote, one Pope," it is about time that a firm stand was made for the traditions of the great Liberal Party, for in- dependence of thought and action, because, as it is now, the Liberal Unionists almost need catacombs for their meetings, and all Liberals are expected to submit to the " passive obedience" of an effete Toryism.—I ara,.Sir, &c., Star Hill, Rochester, April 23rd. J. VINCENT BELL.
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