THE WORK OF THE SESSION.
[To THE EDI I OR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] 'SIR,—The longer the dissolution is delayed, the more over- whelming, I fear, will be the defeat of the Government in the 'rural constituencies. The fact is, large sections of the Unionists find themselves deliberately trampled under foot. Take the Tithe Bill, for example. While the tenant-farmers looked upon it with some suspicion, the freeholders will tell you that the meaning of it was that they were to be victimised instead of the clergy. Then, again, as to the Land-purchase Bill (Ireland) now under discussion. Not only does it violate the most cherished principles of the Liberals of the old school, most of whom are Unionists, but it offends the practical instincts of the Radicals of the new school, many of whom belong to the same party. Nor is this all. If a man has no children to educate, he regards Free Education, which is promised shortly, as an injustice. There are those, too, who say that it carries on the face of it less regularity of attendance, more compulsion, the violation of an existing compact, and the demoralisation of parents and electors alike. When her Majesty's Government condescend to hatch the eggs that their opponents have laid, and which they once denounced as bad, the word goes round that they have put up their consistency to auction. And if the electors require bribes, it is surely their duty to bid them go elsewhere. " For bribing and shifting have seldom good end," as old Tusser observed, as
-early as the days of Edward am, Sir, &c., SHROPSHIRE.
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