16 JULY 1887, Page 12

Ballantine, the Home-ruler, by the narrow majority of 16, Mr.

Ballantine polling 4,229 votes, against 4,213 given for Colonel Eaton. This is a borough in which the Conservatives and the Liberal Unionists have not co-operated with any cordiality, and the result has been defeat. There are still too many boroughs in which Conservatives find it as difficult to co-operate with Liberal Unionists, or Liberal Unionists with Conservatives, as Captilets found it to co-operate with Montague, or Mon- tague with Capnlets, in the Verona of old days. At the election of last year, Mr. Eaton carried the seat against Mr. Ballantine by a majority of 805; so that the gain of the Home-rulers in the by-election was considerable. But Coventry has always been a borough in a condition of unstable political equilibrium.