NEWS OF THE WEEK.
BEFORE the next issue of the Spectator is in the hands of our readers the polls will be in fall awing, and the general result of the elections indicated, though not decided. We have expressed elsewhere our fear that abstentions may injure the Unionists, and urged that even at the eleventh hour the Prime Minister should give clear and specific assurances to the country in regard to Cabinet reconstruc- tion, and thus deprive the Opposition of their only really effective weapon at the polls,--the allegation that those who vote Unionist are giving a blank cheque to the old Cabinet, and abandoning all power to secure greater administrative efficiency. Assurances as to reconstruction are due to the party and the nation, and under ordinary circumstances the failure to give them might reasonably be followed by the protest of absten- tion. As it is, however, the risk of placing in power the tangled groups which make up the Liberal party is one too serious to be encountered. Such a result might mean a Majuba settlement in South Africa. Unionist voters, then, who care for the welfare of the nation and of the Empire, no matter how strongly they may feel about reconstruction, must go to the polls and vote for the Unionist candidate. They can, however, make, and should make, every possible effort to induce the candidates they support to give personal assurances that in the event of victory they will see that the views of the voters on the question of reconstruction are brought home to the Unionist leaders.
