THE DONEGAL ELECTION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—It may seem a paradox, perhaps, to assert that the result• of the Donegal election has been to strengthen the probability of a statement in a letter I recently wrote to the Spectator, to the effect that the Tories would be driven out of Ulster at the next• elections, but I think I can show that it is only'a seeming one. It is true, indeed, that a Conservative has been returned by a: larger majority than Mr. Conolly had over the unsuccessful Liberal candidate at the last general election. But before we decide too rashly from this fact, let us inquire who and what this Mr. Wilson is, who is now Knight of the Shire in the room of the late Mr. Conolly. First, then, Mr. Wilson is a respectable country attorney, and as such must be a sad stumbling-block to• the squires of Donegal, who have hitherto had their interests represented in Parliament by men of their own "order." When Mr. Conolly, who succeeded his father in the representation of the county and the possession of a princely fortune, was first returned, thirty-seven years ago, I wonder did he for a moment- think that his successor would be a Sessional practitioner?
Then, again, Mr. Wilson is a Presbyterian, which circumstance, together with the fact that he is a Conservative, went far to secure his election, for qua the former he probably received a large sup- port from the Presbyterians, notwithstanding his Conservatism:, while qua the latter the Tory landlords preferred him to the- nominee of the priests. And where, as in Donegal, the three creeds are nearly balanced, the union of any two will ensure suc- cess to their candidate. Had the Conservative candidate been a landlord and a pronounced Tory, there can be no question that the Presbyterians would have joined with the Roman Catholics, and returned their man. As it was, a fair portion of them must have voted for the Liberal candidate.
Lastly, Mr. Wilson is an advocate of tenant-right, and if he had not been so, it would have availed him little being both a Presbyterian and Conservative. Liberals in England may wonder what meaning the cry of tenant-right can have since the passing of the Land Act. Before that measure became the law, the custom of tenant-right, as is well known, meant the right of the tenant to sell his good-will or interest in the land, and this interest very often sold for as much as the fee-simple. Mr. Gladstone's Act stereotyped this custom. No sooner, however, had it passed than the question arose whether tenant- right did not attach to tenancies where there were leases as well' as to those where there were none. The tenants of Ulster are unanimous in demanding that the Land Act should be amended, by putting this question beyond dispute, and it is not too muck to say that no one has a chance of being returned for a northern county who does not pledge himself to tenant-right I have endeavoured thus to show that Mr. Wilson owes his victory not to the fact that he was the representative of Conser- vative as against Liberal principles, but to the following circum- stances,—that he is one of the people, that he professes the creed of the Radical party, together with the politics of the landlords, and last, not least, that he is a strenuous supporter of tenant-right. If the Conservatives are content with a victory so secured, they are easily satisfied. I may add that Mr. Wilson polled twenty- seven votes less than the Marquis of Hamilton did in 1874, while the Liberal candidate received fifty votes more than the first of the defeated candidates then.—I am, Sir, &c., AN IRISHMAN.
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