THE DUTY OF INDEPENDENT LIBERALS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOL.1 Siu,—It is painful for a Liberal whose ties with the Liberal Party go, back to past generations to realise that in the
present political contest it is a plain duty not only to abstain from supporting the Government, but to support the opposition to them. No issue could be clearer than that of the immediate Dissolution, and never perhaps in our Parlia- mentary history have a party in power so distinctly challenged the consciences of their habitual supporters upon the claims of mere party allegiance as against the primary duty of patriotism. So little confidence do Mr. Asquith and his colleagues appear to place in the popular approval of their' extraordinary Budget, and in the popular disapproval of the House of Lords' insistence upon the submission of it to the electorate, that they have actually found it worth while to secure the aid of the Irish Nationalist vote by the sudden undertaking to revive Home-rule. Thus the electors are to be led off the direct matters of the Budget and the House of Lords, and to pronounce at one and the same Election upon a statutory Parliament in Dublin. By this process of bargain the Liberal Party is plunged headlong into a great pitfall. Even the question of the retention of Cob- denite Free-trade, which an ordinary Liberal would desire to uphold at much risk to other questions, must take its chance if it cannot be voted on without at the same time voting for Home-rule as well as the destruction of an effective Second Chamber, not to mention the installation of all that is implied and involved in this year's Budget. How is it possible that any Liberal who can think for himself, and who is not warped and deranged by party organisation, can submit to such a dictatorship as this? It is better, surely, to let the party go into opposition and cease to rule until such leaders arise who may be true to higher principles of public policy. Formerly the Liberal Party was the political instrument for promoting liberty and education. To-day it is the slave of factions, and relies on the support of those who seem bent upon pandering to ignorance and misrepresentation. There is no means of restoring the present so-called Liberal Party to the great ideals of their past leaders without placing them for a time out of power and out of office.—I am, Sir, &c.,
A LIBERAL.
Previous page
