Birmingham seems to be greatly agitated by its coming elec-
tion, and the Conservatives are moving heaven and earth to return a Tory. Mr. Bright has made a great speech to his con- stituents in favour of filling up the late Mr. Scholefield's place by another Liberal,—Mr. Dixon being the Liberal candidate before the electors,—and he puts his claim to have a Liberal colleague assigned him rather strongly. "Was he to be only nominally their representative? Was his authority to be struck down by yoking him to a colleague whose vote would destroy the force of his? Better far that he should cease to be their representative or retire from Parliament, than that he should consent to speak and eat and vote with a divided and enfeebled authority." Mr. Bright is mistaken in thinking that, in his case at least, his " authority " in Parliament depends much on his colleague. Mr. Bright is much more than the Member for Birmingham, and Mr. Dixon's election would scarcely affect his personal influence sensibly at all. But no doubt it would be an immense triumph for the Conservative party to return a Tory for Birmingham, without even an enlarged -constituency to experiment upon. It would show that Mr. Disraeli has converted even the staunchest Liberals by his "policy of legerdemain" into his adherents.
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