LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE " SPECTATOR " AND TRUE CONSERVATISM.
[To TEN EDITOR OF Tall "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Some months before the General Election I had reluctantly formed the opinion that the Spectator, carried away by its laudable zeal for Free-trade, had given way to an undue animosity to its opponents, and that in its eagerness to beat the dog " Protection " it was regarding any stick as good enough for that purpose ; in other words, that my favourite weekly mentor had a little lost its judicial balance, and was assuming, in one or two instances at any rate, an unduly hostile attitude towards the late Government. I know that many of my Unionist friends thought so. Persuaded by your recent sound criticism of certain wild legislative schemes proposed or approved by the present Government, I have now come to think that I was hasty in my former judgment, and that we Unionist Free-traders may again, or still, look to your paper as one of our most faithful and foremost champions. If this were only an individual opinion, it would have no importance; but I know that it is shared by many of your subscribers. Permit me to express this feeling on my own part by sending you the enclosed penitential, though irrelevant, cheque for the furtherance of your Militia Experi- ment, which, of course, is wholly free from any party character.
[We publish our correspondent's letter, for it gives us an opportunity to state once more our political position,—a position which has apparently been to a certain extent obscured by the heat and dust of the party conflict. We stand, as we have always stood, for what is sane, moderate, and Constitutional, and therefore essentially conservative, in the conduct of public affairs. It was beeause our side was' the conservative side in the true sense that we opposed Mr. Chamberlain and those who aided and abetted him in his ruinous policy, and shall continue to oppose him and them. The policy of Protection, under whatever name it is presented, is in essence revolutionary, Socialistic, and anti-conservative. Therefore, even at the risk of misconstruction, and even though it involved the temporary triumph of those with whom we are out of sympathy in many respects, we felt obliged to make our opposition effective. When the house is on fire one cannot stop to consider the nature of the fluid used to extinguish it. But though the madness of the so-called Conservatives who followed, or would not disown, Mr. Chamberlain made it imperative in the interests of the Empire and the nation to exclude him and his followers from power, we do not mean to abate one jot of our zeal and earnestness in opposing all schemes of a Socialistic or revolu- tionary nature. Our readers may depend upon our opposing even a Free-trade Government if they introduce such measures as those for paying Members of Parliament, for feeding the school-children, for confiscating the property of landlords either in town or country, or for placing Trade- Unionists above the law. We are neither Protectionists nor Socialists, Home-rulers nor Little Englanders, and when- ever we hold that there is danger to the State in respect Of schemes dictated by these anti-national groups we mean to raise our voice in warning, and oppose them to the best of our power.—En. Spectator.]
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