THE FILES OF THE "SPECTATOR."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
.Sin,—May I, as a lifelong admirer of the Spectator and its invariable wish to discuss any question with fairness, suggest that there has been in its attitude on the fiscal problem a serious loss of sense of proportion? To misquote Mr. Kipling :
" Files !
Spectator files !
Excuse me for referring to the files.
The fairly recent numbers of the files Taught us to appreciate All the men whom now you slate, They were lately good and great In the files,
In the not-so-long-ago Spectator files."
Personally, I am sitting, axeless, on the top rail of the highest fence, and dispassionately hoping to rescue the naked truth out -of the turbid flood of bones and dogs, six-foot walls and water- falls, with which the surrounding landscape is covered. From that lofty position I am unable to believe that the Balfour who (files) stood calm and unshaken through the anxieties of Home- rule and the Boer War has become an hysterical dreamer; that the far-seeing Chamberlain of the same time (files) is now a reckless and purblind demagogue ; and that the resolute
,Chancellor of the Exchequer who saw them through (files) has developed into a man who cannot " stick it out." Neither -can I believe that any thoughtful Unionist will assist in handing over the destinies of this country to Sir H. Campbell- Bannerman and his followers, who were in those days just what the Spectator said they were (files), yet who at this moment are apparently regarded by the same Spectator as a preferable
set of rulers to those who—at the worst—are only possibly fiscal heretics. I use the word " only " because observation
shows that tariffs, though they may *lye effects for better or worse, have never yet made a country, nor marred one ; and I cannot agree with the Spectator in treating the question of "Free-trade or Protection" as the Alpha and Omega, or even the Omikron, of Imperial policy.—I am, Sir, &c.,
J. A. L.
[Our correspondent, of course, gives us a shrewd hit on the personal point, as can always be done when statesmen suddenly turn their coats and newspapers do not. Till six months ago we believed Mr. Balfour to be a genuine Free-trader ; and till ten days ago Sir Michael Hicks Beach apparently was determined to "stick it out" ; while no one could have imagined Mr. Chamberlain advocating a general system of Protection. If, however, our correspondent will oblige us with another refer- ence to the files, he will find that Free-trade, Free-trade, and again Free-trade has been preached by the Spectator, not for the Last ten, but the last fifty years. Does he expect us to abandon Free-trade because we found certain statesmen to be very much less wise on a matter essential to the welfare of the nation than we thought they were ?—ED. Spectator.]
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