The disturbance of our old two party system is being
illustrated in the by-eleetions; In Lord Howe's old seat, South Battersea, the Labour candidate, Mr. Bennett, won the seat by a majority of 576 over the Unionist, from whom, if we can judge from the figures of the General Election, the Liberal candidate took most of his 2,858 votes. Mrs. Dalton has kept the Bishop Auckland division for Labour by a majority over the votes cast for both her opponents. Much the same result is expected in the WansbeCk Division, where the *ailing is taking place while we write. Elections which will probably be " three cornered " are now pending in North Lanark, owing to the death, of a. highly esteemed member, Sir Alexander Sprot ; in the Holland-with-Boston DiviSion Of Lincolnshire ; and at Bath, owing to the death of its member, Captain Foxcroft, a gallant man and a minor poet. By-elections, even in spate, are notoriously bad guides to a General Election, but all' the parties must be growingly conscious how the machinery creaks since the conditions have changed.
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