THE LIBERALS AND PROVINCIAL MEETINGS.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—In your two last numbers letters have appeared from correspondents in the country complaining that Liberal M.P.'s are lukewarm, if not positively indifferent, to the duty of attend- ing public meetings in the provinces. This is not so. There is no difficulty whatever in getting Liberal M.P.'s to go to public meetings within reasonable or even unreasonable distance of London, if they are approached through some recognised autho- rity, such as the Liberal Central Association, or the London and Counties Liberal Union. The fault lies at the door of the promoters of the meetings.
I happen to know that at the request of the two associations I have just named, the services of at least forty Liberals M P.'s have been secured for different public meetings in the home counties during the past winter. The usual course pursued by local Liberal Associations is, first, to engage their hall and com- plete their arrangements, and then go to work to obtain speakers, with the date irrevoeably fixed. Then they write to forty or fifty M.P.'s, and ask them to come. If it is a favourable day, some eight or ten of them may accept; and in that case, when the reminder comes a few days before the meeting, and each M.P. sees there are seven or more going, nobody goes at all, and the affair is a fiasco.
The next invitation that comes of a similar kind, A finds that B, C, D, E, F, G, &e., are also invited, and by common consent they all refuse. This is exactly what happened in the case -which gave rise to the correspondence. • Invitations were sent simultaneously to thirty-six M.P.'s, and they all declined, believing some other one would accept. Had the Secretary of the association written three or four weeks before the meeting to either Mr. J. Noble, of the Liberal Counties 'Union, or to the Liberal Central Association, with a choice of two or three dates, I am quite certain that two Liberal M.P.'s would have been at the meeting, and " Publius " would not have rushed into print with his complaint.
Not very long ago, I met in the lobby of the House the Secretary of the Liberal Association of a large Lancashire town. He complained bitterly of the neglect of the Liberal Party to furnish M.P.'s for a meeting be had been trying in vain to organise for two winters in succession. I soon found that he- had been following the usual methods. I asked him to give me- three days to choose from, and ten minutes to get him his. speakers. In six minutes I gave him the names of four Mem- bers willing to go, one of whom was a distinguished member of the Ministry. The meeting was held, the speakers willingly travelled over 200 miles to attend it, and were rewarded by an audience of nearly 4,000.
I can assure "Publins " that had he taken time by the fore-- lock, entered the field with a choice of days, and applied through, a recognised channel, he would have found it equally easy to. get his platform made up.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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