A PLEA FOR DISSOLUTION.
LTo THIll EDITOR OF THE " sp 'tar wrotc."]
Snl,—It is extraordinary how easily a body of, say, a score of men, each individually just and honourable, can add up collectively into something resembling a weak but destructive tyrant. I need not say that I refer to the present Cabinet. However, being honourable men, should not the striking figures of Peckham and other recent elections lead them to stay their hand in their subversive and revolutionary experi- ments, since, if there is one thing more certain than another, it is that the country has withdrawn any mandate it may have given them, and ought to be consulted afresh before this wild and destructive, and evidently unpopular, legislation is pro- ceeded with P My impression of the average elector who tarns the scale at elections is that he was disgusted and alarmed with Mr. Chamberlain's Protectionist pro- posals, and promptly turned out the Unionist Government. He still dislikes those proposals, but is far more dis- gusted and alarmed by the revolutionary domestic policy of the present Government. The idea in these voters' minds is : "Nothing can be worse than this. We will risk even Tariff Reform, much as we object to it, rather than suffer these constant alarums and excursions, driving us we know
not where, but certainly into enormous and ruinous expendi- ture." My contention, then, is that the Cabinet, knowing, as they must, that the country is no longer with them, ought to consult it by a Dissolution before proceeding with what many of us consider such damaging and demoralising measures as old-age pensions, and other things they have on the stocks. And every legitimate means, such as public meetings and petitions, ought, in my opinion, to be resorted to to compel them to do this. There is hardly any doubt that the majority is against them, and se demettre on se soumettre is the classic phrase they ought to be boldly confronted with.—I am, Sir; W. M. COOPER.
Broadfield, Boston.
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