Mr. Henry Matthews has been returned for East Birmingham without
a contest after all. When the feelings of the Liberal Unionists came to be tested, it was obviqus that they were uo more inclined to vote for Irish Home-rule in the form in which some of the Radical Unionists profess to approve it,—a form which we sincerely believe to be worse, not better, than Mr. Gladstone's,—than they were to vote for it in the form which Mr. Gladstone has recommended to us. First, Mr. Arthur Chamber- lain elicited from Mr. Alderman Cook that he would insist on the retention of the Irish representatives at Westminster, and on the subordination of the Dublin Parliament to the West- minster Parliament ; but then another correspondent,—Mr. Morris,—elicited from the Alderman that his views on the subject of Home-rule bad not changed in any respect since he had separated himself from the Unionists before the last contest ; and this was so unsatisfactory to Mr. Arthur Chamber- lain, that he directly insisted on Alderman Cook's saying that he had changed his views since the General Election, and would accept the decision given by the constituencies at the General Election. This Alderman Cook,—who, as far as we can judge, had really not changed his views,—declined to do, and the result was that the Radical Union refused to support him, and on the nomination day it was found that Alderman Cook had with- drawn. On the whole, though we are extremely glad that Alderman Cook was compelled to withdraw, we think he was rather hardly used. It is, we suspect, the Radical Unionists who, having been impressed,—very wisely impressed,—by the decision of the country, are modifying their views, and they are unreasonable in expecting from Alderman Cook, who has not been thus impressed, that he should accommodate his impressions to theirs.
