The contest in Hartlepool will be very important, and no
one knows how it will turn out. Both the Unionist and the Gladstonian candidates are very popular men, large employers of labour, Nonconformists, possessed of great influence in the place, and supporters of the Eight-Hours Miners' Bill. There are said to be at least 6,000 voters who have never really given their votes on the question of Irish Homo-rule or Unionism, and who may give them in the election which is now approaching. The late Member, Mr. Richardson, a Liberal, or rather Radical, Unionist, was so personally popular that the political issues sank into insignificance, in comparison with the personal influence which he exerted ; but Sir William Gray, the Unionist candidate on the present occasion, and
Mr. Furness, the Gladstonian candidate, are very well matched, and there is reason to believe that whichever of the two may win, he will win by the preference of the constituency for the Unionist or Home-rule policy itself, so little difference is there between them on any local or other issue. Apparently the Gladstonian orators are to make a great effort for Mr. Furness, and we hope the Unionist orators will do the same for Sir William Gray. This is not a crisis at which we can afford to be lukewarm.
