[To THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR...1 SIR, — When Mr. Chamberlain began
his campaign he ap- pealed to us all to be ready to sacrifice something to draw the Colonies closer to us and to maintain the Empire. There was
something noble in that. When, however, opinion grew that the sacrifice would be immense and evil in its effects, cruel to the poor, and very unlikely to attain its aim, Mr. Chamber- lain changed his tone, and began to assure us that the sacrifice would be no sacrifice, but an advantage,—an advantage to class after class, to the manufacturer, the artisan, the farmer, and the field labourer. He appeals now to self-interest. There is nothing very noble in that. He assures us we shall all be better off; we have his personal pledge that no one will be poorer by being more heavily taxed. His contention, backed as it is by untiring energy and unceasing rhetoric, is being ably met day by day ; but I wish specially to press the case of the poor. There are poor of all classes. Consider the poor annuitant, perhaps a widow with children ; or the clergyman, with wife and family, depending not at all upon tithes, living, or struggling to live, on an income of £100, or less than £100, a year. Consider the clerk, the teacher, the small shopkeeper.
I will not multiply instances. Any one with any knowledge of English life can extend the list indefinitely. Take, finally, the case of those more sunken in poverty—the odd-job man, the casual labourer, the half-starved—and let us ask ourselves whether it shall be permitted that dearer food, dearer clothing, dearer necessaries of all kinds shall push down those to whom life is already so hard into depths crueller and harder still.— I am, Sir, &c., W. T. MALLESON. Great Tew, Oxon.
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