LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIB,—A correspondent in last
week's issue asks you "what special interest Free-trade has to Nonconformist ministers, that they should preach politics from their pulpits, and address meetings all over the country." You rightly say in reply that "many of them have congregations drawn from the poor— this is especially the case with the Wesleyans—and most are well conversant with the needs of the poor." But surely patriotism and a deep sense of the moral issues involved in the great question before the country at this General Election may be supposed to have given Nonconformist ministers a very special interest in it. As a Primitive Methodist minister, resident in Scotland, I was so alarmed by the proposal to re- impose Protection that I felt bound to do my utmost to defeat it, and the able arguments and resolute attitude of the Spectator had no small share in inducing me to take this course. When our Unionist Member, the late Sir William Rattigan, came down and delivered a speech full of the usual Protectionist fallacies, and avowed himself a follower of Mr. Chamberlain, I addressed a column of criticism to the local paper. My concern was still more increased when two of the most influential local steel manufacturers went over to Pro. tectionism ; and when the principal local weekly, which is neutral in politics, placed its columns at ray disposal for a discussion of the question, giving me the privilege of imme- diate reply to every letter received, I gladly accepted the offer. For four months I contributed a column on some aspect of the Fiscal question, replying to scores of letters, and in the end was left in possession of the field. At the by- election which came soon afterwards the Free-trade majority was 4,926, and at the General Election it was 6,656. In spite of a three-cornered contest, the Liberal retained the seat by the largest majority ever gained by any candidate in the history of the constituency.—Thanking you for the national service you have rendered, I am, Sir, &c.,
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