Mr. Hall, the Conservative candidate for Oxford, has beaten the
Liberal candidate, Mr. Lewis, by the very considerable majority of 462 votes, Mr. Lewis having polled 2,092 votes,— -within 190 of as many as Mr. Cardwell obtained a month ago,— and Mr. Hall having gained 2,554 votes, two hundred or so more than Sir William Harcourt, who headed the poll in February. It is worth notice, however, that even Mr. Hall fell short by Another two hundred votes of the number polled by Mr. Cardwell, the highest Liberal candidate, in 1868. Mr. Hall had great local influence, besides showing very considerable gifts as a speaker, while Mr. Lewis, though an eloquent speaker also, was a stranger to the town. The lesson of the election seems to be that the ballot will in the usual way favour social influence, quite as much as it will protect the voter against the weight of social pressure. It will relatively diminish the importance of political, and -increase the importance of all other kinds of influence ;—certainly, -Oxford, which was Liberal in February, is not to be supposed .genuinely Conservative in March.
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