THE UNIONIST FUTURE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:1
Snt,—.A. new year approaches with the customary regrets and resolves, disappointments and anticipations ; so now the recent elections might make Unionists again dream of suc-
cess. Alas ! in politics as in tennis we score by our adversaries' blunders, but we lose by our own. In by-elec-
tions dissatisfaction with the Government will turn the scale, but at the General Election what the other side has to offer usually determines the result.
In these days the elector would like to say a plague on both of you ; I want neither ; but he has to choose between Home Rule, which he does not like and does not understand, and the taxation of all his food, which he thoroughly under- stands and very much dislikes. On such an issue the Government must win; neither Unionist work nor enthusiasm can give victory ; they will only affect the extent of the beating. Seventy to one hundred seats cannot be won on the taxation of all food.
If an assured pledge for the duration of the next Parlia- ment of moderation as to protection, and of no new food taxes were given, the Unionists would sweep the country. With- 2s. on corn as the sole additional food duty, they might scrape through, though it is doubtfuL Are we going to take any step to ensure victory or simply drift in the old course P It may suit the Birmingham Radicals to nail the colours to the mast and scream themselves hoarse ; for they have all the toys and the big doll too.
Mr. Lloyd George's Budget was very much like- the doctrine of "Ransom." It is doubtful if the Lords, who "like the lilies toil not, neither do they spin," see much difference between the Parliament Bill and the old cry of " End them or mend them "; and when this Government deals with the Isuffrage, religious teaching in voluntary schools, and the Welsh Church there will not be much wailing in the streets of Birmingham. One wonders where the Conservative comes in, whether he never tires of pulling out the chestnuts, and whether the foolish children as they neared the hill of disappearance began to have, too late, doubts of the wisdom of listening to the pipe of the pied piper of Hamelin.—I am, Sir, &c., Temple. E. LE Rican.
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