THE IGNORANCE OF THE AVERAGE ELECTOR.
[To ras Eorros 07 TIM "SracTaroo-"] firs—Among the startling features of the present political crisis nothing is more astonishing than the fact, as I believe it to be, that the average elector even now knows very little about the rights and wrongs of the Home Rule question. The Conservative leaders have taken but little trouble to enlighten him. They appear to think that Home Rule debates in the House of Commons are of some importance. Occasionally they talk of appealing to the country, but—whether from lazi- ness or failure to grasp the situation, it is difficult to say—they do not do a fraction of what they might do to make the appeal effective, but leave a large proportion of the electorate in blank ignorance. It would be possible for a sum that could easily be raised to put The Ulster Protest, that telling pamphlet by an Ulster clergyman, in the hands of nearly all the electors. Distributors should be appointed for all towns and country districts. And with it should be scattered broadcast the reports of English Home Rulers who have been to Ireland to investigate for themselves and have come back opponents of
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