25 NOVEMBER 1882, Page 3

The Salisbury election went for the Tories, as by-elections generally

do when the Tory candidate rejected at the general election has conciliated the borough by active services. In these cases, a considerable number of the constituency regard it as a legitimate "consolatium " to return the previously rejected candidate for the remnant of any broken Parliamentary term. Mr. Grenfell, the former Liberal Member, who had accepted a small officer under Government, and, of course, was sent back to his constituents, received only 852 votes ; while Mr. Kennard, the rejected Tory candidate of 1880, was returned, with 955 votes,—majority for the Tory, 103. To draw from a by-election in so small a place any general inference as to the feeling of the country for or against the Government, is absurd. You might as well reason as to the ebb or flow of the tide from the eddies in a chance pool upon the sands,