[To THY EDIT= OF 122 " SPECT•TOR,"]
SIR,—I am a country parson in an agricultural parish in the south-west of England. Half my time is spent in talking to working people. The wages of our labouring class are low and stationary. Recent increases in the cost of living have made these men more acutely sensitive than ever to the fear of a further rise of prices. They are incapable of being made to understand that an import tax of 2s. on wheat and five per cent. on other foodstuffs can mean anything else than an assurance that they will have to pay more for their victuals. The fear of this with them dominates every other political consideration—small blame to the poor fellows that it is so. The important fact about all this is just this : that in a parish which at the last two elections gave a majority of Unionist votes, Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Bonar Law's policy will, on the voters' own confession to me, lose the Unionist Party nearly every wage-earner's vote. There is no reason to think that this district is peculiar; on the contrary, it is representative of the great rural areas of the south-west. I am personally a
Tariff Reformer.—I am, Sir, &c., A. J. S.
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