MR. MARKS AND THE CONFEDERATES.
[To T IL EDITOR Or TRIII "5rMOTATOIL".1 do not know what constitutes membership of the Confederacy, but you will remember that Mr. Harry Marks was one of the gentlemen who initiated the movement against Lord Robert Cecil in Marylebone last year. I will now tell you bow his services have been rewarded. Your readers may remember that two years ago Mr. Marks took advantage of his position as a Member of the House of Commons to read to the House, in reply to an article which had appeared in the Spectator, a resolution of confidence passed by the Council of his local Association, and claimed it as a vindication of his honour and that of the House. Some of us knew that this was a piece of impudent bluff, on a par with the attack which he had previously delivered in the same place upon the motives of the signatories to the letter to the Speaker. The local Associations had passed a rule whereby none but his pledged supporters can remain or be elected members. Nevertheless, the signatories to the letter to the Speaker not only offered to appear before his Council, but sent them a detailed statement of their case, and challenged contradiction in a single particular. They could obtain no reply. Last June Colonel Bowles, a prominent member of the National Union, visited Thanet on behalf of the Primrose League in order to confer with Mr. Marks's Unionist opponents. The position Was explained to him, and be suggested that the Thanet Unionist League—the organisation of those opponents—should become affiliated to the National Union, and their delegates could then be beard, either by the Committee or at the Cardiff Conference. An application was duly made, and all formalities complied with. Immediately after the Cardiff Conference we were informed that the application was refused, and the same hafermation was somehow conveyed to the local paper which
supports Mr. Marks. Had our request been granted, it is clear that Mr. Marks must have met his accusers or retired. His Protectionist allies have saved him from that fate, and induced the National Union to proscribe all who decline to support him. I need not trespass upon your space with any comment. The facts speak for the inselves.—I am, Sir, &c.,
The Athemeum, Pall Mall, S.W. J. W. WEIGALL.
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