The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1895-11-07
ENGLISH LIBERALS AND SILVER
Some Light Thrown Upon the Result of tho
Late Pariia mentary EIections.

Sonie AiBht thrown Upon the Result or tho
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:
THE attitude of Sir William Har-
court and the Right Hon. George
Shaw-Lefevre, in dealing with the cur
rency question in Mr.. Gladstones cabi-
net, had served to concentrate the eff
forts of Mr.. Grenfelrs parliamentary
committee upon the constituencies
of Derby and Bradford. In Derby
the silver vote had merely the
effect of somewhat swelling the
great majority against Mr.. Glad.
stones late chancellor of the ex-
chequer, but in Bradford the Austen
ton of some sixty liberal voters who
had drifted together almost by acct
dent the day before the election has
sutficed to retire from public life that
eminent contractionist statesman,
Mr.. Shaw-Lefevre. To Mr. Shaw
Lefevre belongs the distinc-
ton Of being the most violent
and also the most ignorant
monometallist of all the memb ers of
Mr.. Gladstone's late cabinet, and Mr.
Lefevre was defeated by majority of
only forty-one votes by Mr.. Wanklyn,
who, unbeknown to Mr.. 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 de-
stroyed the leading industries Of the
north of England, and declaring that
growing section of the liberal party
was determined at all future elections
to see this silver issue through to
the bitter end. The last letter of
the series which has passed between
Mr.. Lefevre and Mr.. McLaren 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 hear
untold burdens upon its debtors and
support any monetary policy which by
reducing prices would increase the
amount of produce paid to England in
the form of interest on her foreign
loans.
Let me only add that Mr.. W. II.
Grenfcll's vigorous canvass has for the
first time, at these recent elections,
brought the currency question within
the domain of practical politics | am
not for moment depreciating either
the intel linanpQ ar ha 60, G
the Bimetallic league hitherto, but that
league has contented itself far toe
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 a
few constituencies that molicum 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.. Bertram Currie, Lord Farrer, Sir
William Harcourt and Mr. Letevre hau
closed the minis of India in 1893 and
had dep. ived 800, 600, 600 of our fellow
subjects of any money metal whatso-
ever Mr.. Grenfell, Mt that time q sup
porter of Mr.. Gladstone, resigned his
seat for Hereford in disgust. | think
the zeal and energy devoted to the
cause of reform by this gentleman will
make him man. friends amongst those
industrial communities abroad which
are suffering severely from the fall in
the price of what they export-a
fall which has been engineered here
by that legislation which has appreci.
ated the money Standard