[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—The dangers which
you point out as likely to arise from the continuance in power of a Liberal Government appear to me less immediately threatening than those we shall certainly incur if we endorse the claim of the Upper House to the power of the purse, and at the same time acquiesce in the revival of Protection. We shall thus help to inaugurate a political contest of which, however prolonged, I cannot doubt the ultimate result; and the struggle will be exasperated by a system of taxation the disastrous consequences of which will mainly fall upon the lower middle and working classes. On the other hand, if the present Ministers return to power after this Election, I respectfully ask : What can they do in the Parliament so elected beyond passing their old Budget, which the Lords have bound themselves to accept? They will no doubt be justified in proposing legislation dealing with the Upper Chamber and its powers, but those powers remain intact until such proposals have become law, and no one can doubt that the Lords will be fully justified in refusing their assent to drastic measures affecting the status of their own House until the details of such proposals as embodied in a Bill have been pronounced upon by the constituencies. The same applies to Home-rule, or any other purely legislative proposals. If my surmise is correct, therefore, the country is safe from the consummation of revolutionary changes during the life of this next Parliament-, and in these circum- stances, however I may vote at any subsequent Election, I cannot at present overcome any repugnance as a Whig and a Free-trader to support the present claim of the Peers or the resurrection of Protection.—I am, Sir, &ea
FRANK POWNALL.
United University Club, Pall Mall East, S. W.
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