THE WEST SUFFOLK ELECTION.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sxa,—I am strongly inclined to believe that you have somewhat over-rated the political significance of the recent election for West Suffolk in speaking of it as "a considerable triumph for the Go- vernment." As far as I can form a judgment on the matter, the contest between Colonel Wilson and Mr. Easton was not generally regarded or felt as a strictly political one; for not a few of the leading Liberals supported Colonel Wilson on personal and local grounds, whilst a large number refrained from voting at all be- cause Mr. Easton, for one reason or another, did not possess their confidence. I much question whether the Farmers as a body voted with any distinct reference one way or the other to Tenant- eight. They have probably, with comparatively a few exceptions,
not thought very much about it, having, as a rule, good land- lords, and rather leaning to freedom of contract as that to which they have been hitherto accustomed.
If two county gentlemen, of equal pretensions and popularity in other respects, had contested the county on this issue, we should then have seen more clearly whether or not the farmers care for a Tenant-right Bill. The question would have been forced on them for decision, and they would have responded to it according as they judged best for their own interests.
Of Mr. Easton they knew, in this division of the county, little or nothing; he came forward at the last minute, and was more- over weighted heavily by rumours of having coquetted with the- Labourers' Union at Eye, and other matters connected with his candidature there, the full force of which can hardly be estimated by those not resident in the neighbourhood. His explanation of the charge of having subscribed £10 to the Labourers' Union was not considered satisfactory. Whether it would have advanced his- case as a candidate or not, it would certainly have been more creditable to himself as a man to have said outright that £10 of his money had gone to the Union, and he was glad of it. Many of us would have thought the better of him for it. Sir Edward Kerrison, the generous and liberal-minded owner of the Oakley Park estates, did not hesitate to meet Mr. Arch on his own ground at Home ; and his conduct on that occasion is an example which, if it had been adopted in the earlier stages of the Labourers' movement, would have rendered it unnecessary, and if imitated even now by landlords and tenant-farmers, would soon heal the breach between employers and labourers, and establish a state of things for the ultimate benefit of all parties. Sir Edward Kerrison did not hesitate to acknowledge openly what he had done. It will not damage him with a single farmer in the county- Nor do I think it would in itself have constituted a prejudice against Mr. Easton with the thoughtful portion of the constituency.
On the whole, we may safely conclude that this election has gone on personal grounds, and that the result would have been the aame- if Colonel Wilson had called himself a moderate Liberal instead of a Conservative. He has been spoken of as the next Member for many years, and the seat has been unmistakably voted to him as having deserved it for services in the county of no party character. His own political friends, as a matter of course, warmly supported him, and amongst the Liberals no one grudged him the honour ; and I may add that very few approved of an opposition which they felt could not possibly succeed, and could only have the effect of putting Colonel Wilson to an unnecessary
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