A Mr. Joseph Guedalla, a member of the Reform League,
has written a long and very respectful letter to Mr. Lowe, suggesting that the time has arrived when he may retract his accusations against the working men. Mr. Lowe, in reply, tells Mr. Guedalla that for the last few months the Reform League has charged him with accusing the working classes with venality, drunkenness, and other misconduct. He maintains that his speech " only states that such things unhappily do exist in the constituencies, and that when they exist they are to be found rather among the poorer, than the richer voters." The League having thus misrepresented him, had "striven to make him an object of the hatred, perhaps a mark for the vengeance of his countrymen," and with such a body he had no "courtesies" to interchange. He could scarcely "consider the request serious," and declined it. Mr. Lowe takes up the wrong line of defence. He should plead his absolute right to utter his con- victions, not attempt to explain away a speech which certainly meant that the lower the franchise the greater would be the venality and vice. Mr. Lowe has a perfect right to express that opinion, and the League in branding him as it has done is in fact punishing a member for free speech, a practice utterly at variance with any reasonable theory of liberty.
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