Sixty electors of Caine, more than a third of the
constituency of that village, have addressed a letter to Mr. Lowe severely re- buking him for "running from his allegiance to the Liberal cause on a vital point," and for "the ungenerous and unjust satire he has flung on the masses of his fellow working countrymen." Mr. Lowe, in a temperate reply, points out that he has broken no pledge, having in his election address expressed his unwillingness to vote for "theoretical improvements," and explains that his charge of drunkenness and venality was not brought against masses, but against the lowest section of the existing constituen- cies,—the ruffians, for example, who broke Mr. Lowe's head at Kidderminster. He agrees that "large numbers of the masses pos- sess prudence, self-reliance, and perseverance," but maintains that the franchise is a vast lever raising the workmen in the scale by tempting them to secure votes, and desires that the natural pro- cess by which the workmen have raised themselves to be one-fifth of the constituency should not be "artificially accelerated." Mr. Lowe evidently is inclined to recede a little from his extreme position, which certainly was understood to be that working voters were dangerous and corrupt.
