NEWS OF THE WEEK.
(AN Wednesday we suffered a disastrous defeat at Eccles, ‘..1 in Lancashire, where Mr. Roby, the Gladstonian, was re- turned, pledged not only to Home-rule it to an Eight-Hours Bill for miners, by a small majority of 205 in a total poll of 9,597. Mr. Roby polled 4,901 votes, against 4,696 given for Mr. Egerton. The disagreeable feature of the case is that while the Gladstonian vote (of coarse without Liberal Unionists) rose from 4,312 in 1885 (in 1886 it was only 3,985) to 4,901, the Conservative vote rose only from 4,559 in 1885 (in 1886 it was only 4,277) to 4,696 (with the Liberal Unionists), or by 137, the Gladstonian increase being 589 votes. It is believed that this remarkable in- crease in the Gladstonian vote was caused almost exclusively by Mr. Roby's pledge to vote for an Eight-Hours Bill. But that only makes the omen worse. If Home-rule is to be accompanied by democratic interference with individual free- dom, the Gladstonian Party will become a peril to Order no less than to Union. But a great deal of the fault must lie with the supineness of the Liberal Unionists. Unless we can fight better than we fought at Eccles, it is hardly worth while to take us into account at all.
