1 SEPTEMBER 1883, Page 3

Mr. Davenport Handley is fighting a chivalrous battle in Rut.

landshire against Mr. James IV. Lowther, who represents, we suppose, his namesake's views on the land. We shall not know the result before going to press. Rutlandshire has not returned a Liberal since the last Reform Bill ; nor, indeed, has any Liberal ever contested the county since 1841. Still, Mr. Handley has a right to say, as he does say, that the Conservatives would never have done the farmers the justice of giving them the Agricul- tural Holdings Act, and that their leaders denounced many of the provisions of that Act up to the last moment. Whether that will weigh, as it ought to do, in the contest, we are not sure. Farmers often move in even deeper ruts of thne.honoured opinion than the landlords themselves.