The Grenada sentinel., 1895-09-21
ENGLISH LIBERALS AND SILVER
some Light Thrown Upon tie Result Of the I
Late Parliamentary Electfons.

Late Parliamentary Elections.
Sir Morton Frewen, the eminent
English bimetallist, throws some light
! upon the late contest for seats in the
British parliament in letter to the
Atlanta Constitution. He says:
lhe attitude of Sir William IIar.
court and the Right Hon. George
oha"-Lefevre, in dealing with the cur
rency question in Mr.. Gladstone's ca BIZ
net, had served to concentrate the ef-
1orts of Mr.. Grenfell's parliamentary
committee upon the constituencies
OF Derby and Bradford. In Derby
the silver vote had merely the
etecs OF somewhat swelling the
great majority against Mr.. Glad
stones late chancellor OF the cx.
chequer but in Bradford the Austen.
tlon OF some sixty liberal voters who
mad drlfted together almost by acci-
dent the day before the election has
sufticed to retire from public life that
eminent contractionist statesman,
Mr. Shawl Lefevre. To Mx Shaw.
Lefevre belongs the distinc.
ton Of being the most violent
and also the most ignorant
monometallist of all the members Of
Mr. Gladstone's late cabinet, and Mr..
Lefevre was defeated by majority OF
only forty-onc votes by Mr.. Wanxlyn,
who, unbeknown to MIR. Lefevre, had
written to Mr.. Grenfell that he was
heartily in favor Of an International
settlement of our silver trouble. After
the bradford election Mr.. John Nc.
Laren, who had lobbied these sixty
total abstainers,' wrote frankly to
Mr.. Lefevre, pointing out that the fall
in the exchange with Asia had dc.
stroycd the leading industries Of the
north Of England. and declaring that
a growing section of the liberal party
was determined ut all future elections
to see this silver issue through to
the bitter end. The last letter Of
the series which has passed between
Mr.. Lcfevrc and Mr.. McI.arcn shows
the irritation and the amazemcnt of
those Gladstonians who have hitherto
held the view that this great creditor
nation could be relied upon to heap
untold burdens upon its debtors and
support any monetary policy which by
reducing prices would increase th'
amount OF produce paid to England il
the form Of interest on her foreign
loans.
''Let me only add that Mr.. W. X
Grenfells vigorous canvass has for the
first time, at these recent elections,
broug ht the currency question within
the domain OF practical politics. ! am
not for moment depreciating either
the intelligence or the earnestness of
the Bimetallic league hitherto, but that
league has contented itself far too
much with protests and pamphlets,
and it is only fair to Mr.. Grenfell
to say that albeit the elections were
sprung upon him very unexpectedly,
he has contrived to import into not q
few constituencies that nodicum Of
passion which was required to enlist
the men in the street on the side of
currency reform. Your readers may
remember that when the efforts of
Mr.. Rcrtram Curric. Lord !'arrer, Sir
William lIarcourt and Mr.. Lefevre had
closed the mintS of India in 1893 and
had deprived 800, O0o, 900 Of our fellow
subjects of any money metal whutso-
ever. Mr.. Grcnfcll, at that time a sup
porter of Mr.. Glrdstone, resigned his
seat for Hereford in disgust. think
the zeal and energy dc7otcd to the
cause of reform by this gentle man will
make him many friends amongst those
industrial communities abroad which
are suffering severely from the fall in
the price Of what they eNport-a
fall which has beer engineered here
by that legislation which has apprcci.
ated the money standard"