Lor I Leicester has apologised to his tenantey for the
Rote sent round to them before the election, "expecting" them to vote for the Liberal candidates. He says, in a circular ad- dressed to them, that he urged action but not coercion upon his agent, Mr. Shellabear, and then went away to Norway. In his absence his agent issued the notice, "the impoliey and unfitting,nms of which no one now sees more clearly than Mr. Shellabear himself." His Lordship declares that coercion has never been practised on the Holkham estates, that his "father gathered round him a body of tenantry who were attached to him by a community of sentiment," that with them "Liberal principles are an heirloom and a tradition," and that conse- quently "coercion, always a crime, would be to them an un- paralleled blunder and folly." Lord Leicester, that is, does not coerce, he only selects Liberal tenants. No law could stop him if he only selected tenants with red moustaches, but the one prac- tice is as radically unfair as the other. Suppose a London land- lord refused to let Lord Leicester a house until he had explained his political principles?
Previous page
