NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE anxiety felt about the election for Central Birmingham, when it was known that the leaders of the Conservative caucus there were piqued and affronted with Mr. Bright, was quite needless. On Monday, Mr. J. Albert Bright was returned for Central Birmingham by the enormous majority of 3,060,- 5,621 votes being recorded for him, and only 2,561 for Mr. Beale. In 1886, the late Mr. Bright was returned without a contest ; hut in 1885, Lord Randolph Churchill polled 4,216 Conservative votes, against 4,989 Liberal votes given for Mr. Bright. It is obvious that the total poll of Monday was not at all a heavy one, especially as the new register is said to contain a thousand more voters than it did in 1885. It is hardly conceivable that the Gladstonian Liberals in Central Birmingham are anything like so few as the poll of Monday would show them to be ; but then, it is equally certain that the Unionists are not so few as even their poll suggests. And allowing a good deal for the wish of Central Birmingham to keep up its connection with the revered name of Bright, we cannot doubt that the Gladstonian prospects there are almost as bad as in the City or the University of London.
