THE ORGANISATION OF UNIONIST LIBERALS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
SPICTATOR."] SIR,—Are you not a little one-sided in deprecating Mr. Cham- berlain's proposal for the formation of Liberal Unionist Associa- tions throughout the country P Probably what is jest now moot depressing the spirits and the energy of our party is the sense of isolation resulting from our exclusion from our old political Associations, in consequence of our daring to come to a different conclusion on Irish policy to that of Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Courtney deserves the hearty thanks of every Liberal for so clearly pointing out how completely our present action is in harmony with the principles and the traditions of the Liberal Party. If we can prove this to the mass of electors, as I believe we can, we shall have far greater influence than if we merged ourselves in existing Associa- tions. Many of us voted last July for Conservative can- didates, and would, with the greatest unwillingness, do so again under similar circumstances, rather than contribute to the pass- ing of a measure which we believe would be equally disastrous to Ireland and to England. Bat though among the Conserva- tives, we are not of them, and are longing for this cruel neces- sity to pass away.
But at the present moment, hearty Liberal though I am, I can neither hope nor desire that the Liberal Party should come again into power, as long as its leaders maintain silence on the complicity of the so-called popular party in Ireland with crime and anarchy. While eloquent on the cruelty of evicting tenants who do not or cannot pay their rents, is there one of the Glad- stonian leaders, except Lord Herechell, who has denounced with equal eloquence the shooting of tenants who do pay their rents, the mutilation and the social martyrdom of the boycotting of the wives and children of men who have disobeyed the orders of the National League P Can any one doubt that, if the priests were to lift a finger, if the National League—regarded by its English admirers as the conservator of law and order—were to say the word, every one of the miscreants who have committed these crimes would be at once detected and convicted P And can any one doubt that the National League would do this if they knew that the support of English Liberals depended upon it P It is with grief and shame that many of us old Liberals see our party, which has done such service in the past, compromised in this way by its alliance with the party of anarchy in Ireland; but until purged from this complicity, our ways must lie apart, and I, for one, should be heartily glad to see a Unionist Liberal Association established in every borough and county division in the country. From my own observation, I should conclude that our numbers are much larger than our opponents believe, and larger also than is thought by many of our friends.—I am, Sir, Sze.,
ALFRED W. BENNETT.
6 Park Village East, Regent's Park.
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