THE LESSON OF THE MIDLOTHIAN ELECTION. [To TIER EDITOR OF
THE " SPRCTIITOR,"]
Stn,—If the Midlothian by-election reflects at all accurately the opinion of the country, then the balancing elector must be attracted to the winning party. The vices of the man sitting on the fence have made excellent political capital, but the leap in the dark of the present Government having made of those same vices something of a virtue, we may witness a bidding to represent his principles. There is, admitted on all sides, a dead set against the present administration—our little differences are growing into distinct opposition. Is the tendency to look to the Conservative Party to be made irresistible? The culminating factor of the present unrest may or may not be the Insurance Bill—it matters very little to the man on the fence; the outstanding feature of this by-election is the power behind his vote to-day. The Press are daily making him more and more conscious of that power, and if, Mr. Spectator, he is to be the principal factor, who will boldly proclaim his principles ? It is something gained to know he is to be can- vassed—openly canvassed—by the political machine. He is watching the political contest, fully aware that he must enter the arena in deadly earnest. The casting vote of the chairman will this time be pronounced with a clenched fist.
The political carrot will be dangled before his eyes, but silently and firmly the chairman will give his vote, and the conditions are simple enough, conditions which have made our foreign policy of stability to the man in the street. We have let well alone, and we shall find equal stability if we let well alone at home—simplicity itself, but the hardest problem of all to the statesman. But to the politician, with his eye on the political carrot, this seems but the worn-out creed of an old-fashioned Whig. If Burke were alive to-day would principles be so easily shifted without a protest? would it be a musty doctrine which cannot bear exposure in the light of modern politics ?
If modern politics is the dawn of a new era, then we need the cold penetrating light of a principle to reveal the worker staggering under the weight of home duties, which, left alone, have been the simple ties that have culminated in a sacrifice which is the envy of English history. Old-fashioned — to feel the thrill with which our forefathers took up the sword for home and its liberties, old-fashioned in the searchlight of modern politics; but it was at least a liberty. Old-fashioned —to raise the cap to the simple home joys of the cotter ; old.
fashioned—to love the English home. The shouting has all been on the side of "my rights," and the home has been the still small voice not understood, because it must persistently whisper "My duties," and the politics which are built on that still small voice is to let well alone. Will the Con- servative Party let well alone ? Must they come to the elector with a new-fangled Social Reform P Is the damage irreparable? Our trade is increasing, and is there no chance in practical politics to let well alone? That is the verdict of the Midlothian by-election; and behind is the man, sitting in the old arm-chair if you like, sitting waiting, waiting to strike a blow for the, liberty of the home. The deadweight of politics has left him no time to think; your picture politics has added nothing, as revealed in this labour unrest, to his home comforts; and your free education ends in the cinematograph entertainment. But politics to-day is becoming the most serious thing there is in the home; and if the man in the street
is becoming conscious of his power, there is a combination of forces which will win ; but above all, you need to become irresistible to the man in the old arm-chair.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Woluatahr.
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