LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
LIBERAL UNIONISTS AND PRIMROSE LEAGUERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—As a progressive Tory, a Unionist, and a dignitary of the Primrose League, I have had the pleasure on many plat- forms of swearing fidelity to the Liberal Unionists,—a pleasure with which was combined much satisfaction and a sense of common justice and duty. I have also shared platforms with them, and have had considerable gratification in seeing a pre- ponderantly Tory and Primrose League audience ratify my oath of fidelity. I have never suggested that the alliance between Progressive Toryism and pure historic Liberalism was bound to be maintained for ever ; but while rejoicing over the alliance for the nation's good, I have said I shall not regret the day when Lord Hartington takes his proper place in the political arena, and again leads the men who from 1875 to 1880 were Liberals in creed as well as in name. Horatius-like, Liberal Unionists at a very critical moment held the bridge," and no Tory audience I ever faced failed to recognise the fact, and to cheer their gallant allies. This has now gone on for many months, and the alliance has stood all kinds of tests, and I had quite hoped the understanding to be so good as to render friction of every description impossible.
In your issue of May 25th, however, you do indeed, Sir, give me and my brother-dignitaries of the League, and my brother- bumpkins, a facer ; and we read about bitter pills and nausea, contempt and questionable uses, with some little amazement. We expect Gladstonians to wax exceeding wroth, because the success of the League has been so great; the penalty of power and influence must be paid, as a matter of course, and abuse must do its part in discounting the fighting capacity of 810,000 persons. To accuse the Primrose League of boycotting was one of the happiest thoughts of astute wirepullers, and the accusation once made, it was bound to increase and multiply ; but not one single case has been proved, and Lord Harris covered Lord Spencer with confusion when trying hard to obtain a proof. Believe me, Sir, it is only a cry; it means no more than "Vote for Briggs and the big loaf ;" "Vote for Griggs and dear bread,"—both placards being issued by the Briggs party. Gladstonians must accuse the League of some- thing, and they have invented the undue influence of grand dames, Tory peeresses, squiresses, and parsons' wives !
Considerable experience in my own and the adjacent counties enables me to say that, in the enrolling of members, women have been most careful to avoid any approach to coercion. In the early days, I used to make a speech, full, I dare say, of "sickly and sentimental efflorescence," and then men and women were invited to enrol themselves. One hundred and four came in knots and heaps on one occasion, and when I went again, some stragglers walked up voluntarily, and found that no preparation had been made for their reception,—so very much un-coerced had they been in the meantime.
Since those days, "Wardens" have been created, many of them taken from the farming classes, and cottagers have been canvassed, and their names entered as being for or against the candidate. The grand dames and the Tory peeresses have, as a rule, been unseen except at entertainments in grounds, parks, and such places, and on platforms.
I do not suppose that things have proceeded differently in towns ; the whole matter has been open and above-board, and I have no idea where the "mild flattery" and the "milder threats" have come in. "Preferential dealing" has existed. for 250 years ; old Whigs and Tory Jacobites practised it, and their descendants kept it up ; it no more grew out of the Primrose League than it grew out of the transit of Venus. Politicians are full of the old Adam, especially at election times, and nothing that the Spectator can say will put a stop to preferential dealing in one form or another.
Of course, Sir, "true Liberals detest this appeal to ignoble motives "—i.e., to worldly fears—but so do I and my brother- dignitaries. You have been misled into thinking we make any such appeal ; we talk politics, we sing and play and act ; we canvass, and we take part in an entertainment in the grounds of Chanticleer Hall, and we wear badges. When an election comes, we send 810,000 men and women into the con- stituencies to uphold Unionism, Liberal and Conservative; and all this is Primrose Leagueism.
We would gladly "purify the methods of the Primrose League from" the "questionable use of social influence," if only we could discover the questionable use elsewhere than in the imagination of Gladstonians. I greatly regret that the Spectator fancies the existence of an evil I have never yet been able to trace in its mildest form, nor have had proved even in infinitesimal quantities; and my regret is the greater, for we Tories most unaffectedly do "really wish to cement and strengthen their alliance with the Liberal Unionists." If the Liberal Unionists reciprocate this wish, let me entreat them to pay no heed to Gladstonian scandals and fictions. about the Primrose League, for though the League does not care a fig about bonnes histoires, it cares a good deal for the judgment of fair-dealing, unprejudiced allies.—I am, Sir, Sze., R. ST. J. CORBET,
Ruling Councillor, Leamington Habitation. County Club, Bath, May 281h.
[We are exceedingly glad to hear this testimony, and are anxious to be convinced of its truth ; but why do not the Primrose Leaguers denounce anything like party pressure on electors with a little more zeal and frequeney ?—En. Spectator.]
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