NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TR. DISRAELI is the Liberals' strength and shield. In him J_V1 they may put their trust, and not be confounded. By the won- derful letter to Lord Grey de Wilton, of which we have given a full account and criticism elsewhere, he has not only seated Captain Hayter by a majority of 189 as Member for Bath, but found for the Liberal party a new impulse, and for the Conservatives a new discouragement. At Bath its effect was magical. Mr. Forsyth and his friends had believed themselves certain of success, and in spite of this heavy blow and great discourage- ment (which moved the Pall Mall, by the way, almost to tears, so enthusiastic had been its confidence in Mr. Disraeli ever since he declared that he wanted three months for consulting " the archives of Downing Street " before he could compose a policy), the Conservatives of Bath continued perfectly confident of victory till the moment when the official declaration of the poll was made. At 4 o'clock the Conservatives declared that the state of the poll was this,—Mr. Forsyth, 2,326 ; Captain Hayter, 1,686; at the Assembly Rooms, where 200 of the Church Con- gress (mostly Conservatives) had assembled, a Conservative announcement that Mr. Forsyth had been carried by a majority of 150 was received with cheers. At 7 o'clock the windows of Mr. Forsyth's hotel were raised, and every preparation made for a triumphant demonstration, when word came that there had been a little mistake, and that the official numbers were,—Captain Hayter, 2,210 ; Mr. Forsyth, Q.C., 2,071; Mr. Thompson, 57. So the crowd went to hear Cap- tain Hayter speak instead of Mr. Forsyth, and the Liberal triumph was all the more delightful for the sense of rarity with which it came. Let us trust that Captain Hayter will remember how hard the Liberals worked for him, and be a stauncher Liberal this time than he proved himself during the Reform debates of 1866, when, however, he represented Wells, then threatened with the disfranchisement which afterwards befell it. It is true Captain Hayter owes very much to Mr. Disraeli, but it is a debt which he may best pay in kind.
