LETTERS TO TIIE EDITOR.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE.
[To THE EDITOR Or THZ "SPECTATOR."]
SIB,—The three outbursts of the Home Secretary, the Prime Minister, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are now before the country, and are forced upon the attention of every reasonable Liberal. Whether they represent the three degrees of comparison in the process of the degeneration of the Liberal Party, one fact about them is apparent. The Mile End utterances reach a point below the low-water mark of partisan abuse. These three taken together, or even singly, have the effect of the "last straw." They tend to convey a message of release to any thinking person who might be halting between two opinions, and hesitating as to the painful question of severing himself from a political tie with which he has hitherto been associated. Some men who have always voted " Liberal " do not like to vote "Conservative." They need not scruple now. After all, a political party is a means to an end. These latter-day leaders of the so-called "Liberal" Party have made it very plain indeed what sort of end they have in view. The circumstances in which these particular declarations have been made enhance the significance of them to an extent that can scarcely be estimated. Each one of the three is the outpouring of a person who must be assumed to be under the constraint of the fullest responsibility, and responsibility of a kind which is far greater than that of a mere party demagogue and electioneering agitator. They are Ministers of the Crown, and form the innermost ring of the Cabinet. The combined force of their three wills is the dominant force of the present Government, and the domi- nating influence which is to lead and to guide and to control the future of their gangs of followers.
In these circumstances, is it because a man was a Liberal when Mr. Gladstone and his moral force was leading the country, and inspiring even his political opponents with respect, that he is bound to fall in with the doings and the sayings of these people P There should be no hesitation whatever in the answer to this question. The supreme Con- stitutional issue at the coming Election cannot be hidden. Whatever efforts are made by the wirepullers to obscure it, or to overlay it with vague promises of relieving poverty, and paying Members of Parliament, and giving halfpenny post- cards free, the common-sense of the average British workman will not be so easily hoodwinked. What has to be fought out is the safety, honour, and integrity of the greatest Constitution. There is no more reason why one Estate of the Realm should be bullied and browbeaten than any other section of the population. The British sense of fair play must resent the dastardly attempt to muzzle the House of Lords, and then to represent that they have refused to be reformed.
The ethical aspect of the present situation is appalling. One feels the wickedness of it all. The hollow cry of "Six hundred Peers against fort7 millions of people!" the declaration of war from the mouth of a Prime Minister, and the deliberate and elaborate attempt to create and stir up class prejudice and social hatred for which there is no justification in this country,—these things demand the severest censure, and no consideration of party allegiance can tolerate them. There is a famous sentence in the Hebrew Liturgy which is repeated in the Daily Masses, and which just now seems to include the present political outlook. It is translated thus : "Frustrate speedily the devices and destroy the machinations of all who rise up against us for evil."—I am, Sir, &c., OSWALD JOHN SIMON.
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