NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Elections have been raging all through the week, and the alternations of party hope and fear have produced as much excitement as if some great question had been placed before the electors. On Tuesday the hopes of the Liberals rose high. London led off the ball with an unexpected and unanimous vote in their favour, and the Reform Club decided that the majority would be greater even than the calculation ascribed to Mr. Brand. The returns of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday diminished but have not extinguished these hopes. The Liberals, chiefly we fear __through their more fluid organization, have lost a great number of seats, more especially in boroughs of the second or third grade, such as Lichfield, Derby, Thetford, Abingdon, Hereford, and Mahlon, but they have gained still more in the very same class of boroughs, taking places like Taunton and Windsor completely out of Tory hands. By the best calculation yet published the Liberals had up to Friday won seven seats, their gains being 32 against 25 losses, and would win probably two more, exclusive of Ireland. These seven count as fourteen on any great division, and will, should the counties remain unchanged, swell Lord Palmerston's standing majority to very respectable proportions. As a rule, also, the quality of Liberal members has improved, men like Mr. Mill superseding men like Sir John Shelley, and others like Mr. Goschen being placed at the top of the poll, and the general effect of the borough vote may be said to be this. The general feeling of the country has not been greatly changed since the last election, but its Liberalism is more vigorous, its Toryism less decided, and except in a few country towns there is nothing to indicate reaction.
