12 OCTOBER 1889, Page 2

The polling at Peterborough on Monday resulted in the return

of the Gladstonian candidate, Mr. A. C. Morton, an architect and surveyor by profession, and one of the few Radical members of the Court of Common Ceunail. The

figures of Monday's poll, and of that held in 1886, are as. follows :— 251 289 In other words, a majority of 289 for the Union has been turned into a minority of 251. No doubt the influence of the Fitzwilliam family had a good deal to do with the vote of 1886. Still, Mr. Purvis was a capital candidate and made an excellent fight, and his failure to keep the seat must be admitted to be an unpleasant fact. Mr. Purvis, it is said, obtained over 2,000 promises, another instance of the worthlessness of canvassing. The veteran elector who remarked : "When one set of gentlemen comes round, I does my best to please 'em ; and when the others call, I always pleases they too ; but when I goes to the poll, I intends to please myself," has always plenty of followers. At Elgin and Nairn the Gladstonians. also won, the figures being :—

1989. 1886.

Gladstonians ... 2,573 1,991 Unionists ... ... 2,044 1,872

529 119 It is said that the fishermen who voted this year did not vote in 1886, and that to this fact is due the increased majority. In any case, the figures are not really bad for the Unionists, since they polled 172 more votes than in 1886, and 316 more than the Tories alone in 1885.

1889. 1886.

1,893 1,491 1,642 1,780 Gladstonian votes Unionist votes...