POLITICS IN SCOTL.AND. (To TAX EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."
SER,—In view of the fact that the two wings of the Unionist party in Scotland are working together with perfect harmony and concord, it is a pity that your correspondent, Mr. Evan M. Barron, should have written the letter which appeared in the Spectator of December 14th. I am the last person to mini- mise the invaluable services the Liberal Unionists have rendered to the country by their opposition to the Home-rule policy of Mr. Gladstone, but the fact remains that while Liberal Unionism has a very considerable following among the middle classes, it has in Scotland (as in England) very little hold on the mass of the working men. The average Scottish artisan understands what Conservatism and Liberalism are, but the perfectly logical and proper platform on which the Liberal Unionist stands he is, as a rule, wholly unable to appre- ciate. Thus it is that while in a great city like Glasgow the Con- servative Association numbers its members by thousands, the Liberal Unionist Association consists of a far from numerous but eminently respectable and influential body of middle-class men, and when a few years ago a so-called Liberal Unionist demonstration was held in the City Hall, while there was no difficulty about filling the platform, the aid of the Conserva- tives had to be invoked to provide an audience to occupy the area and galleries. And this is the case all over Scotland. In two large county constituencies with which I am well acquainted, when an attempt was made by the Liberal Unionists to establish a separate organisation from the Conservatives throughout the county it w.s found that in almost every parish the sprinkling of Liberal Union- ists was so scanty that the foundation of Committees was an impossibility. The writer of the article in the Spectator of November 30th was perfectly correct in his statement that a Unionist candidate in Scotland calling himself a Con- servative would not lessen his chances of winning a seat, as is shown by the fact that two-thirds of the Unionist Members for Scotland are Conservatives, and I shall be very mach surprised if their Liberal Unionist companions would not readily acknowledge that they owe their seats mainly to the votes of Conservative working men. Mr. Chamberlain is deservedly popular in Scotland, but the influence of his name is not nearly so great as that of either Lord Salisbury or Mr, Balfour. I speak from an active political experience of over twenty years in both county and burgh constituencies,-1
am, Sir, &c., J. D. G. D.A.LETAIELA Meikletcoocl, Stirling.
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