The country, if not already. engaged in the general 'election,
is plunged into all the turmoil of a- canvas. Electoral COnciliabules are the order of the day ; candidates 'are publishing addresses; a,nd constituencies are inquiring after candidates at the Reform and Carlton Clubs and the other places: of resort for such purposes. Apart from the aspirants to Tarliamentary-hiniourii, and 'the pre- _fesinartal managers of. elections, a good deal of,apathy pervades the public mind. A conviction gams ground that the settlement or unsettlement of FreeArade- is not to. be tried at the coming. elec- tion—that the question.ia already .deoidedi and little active inter- est ikfelt at the moment in any other--at leapt little cenfidinalift any combination of miblie men as likely to promote desirable re; forms. Now would :b6 the time-to 'institute the means by which purity and efficiency iii the "structure of ParlitiMent might be in- creased, and the more'reisiag of our social problems adVaneed towards solution. But nothing of the kind • will be done. AO.; oording to present appearances, there will be no: essential change in the composition• of. the -House of Commons. At every general election there is a dropping .away of Methbers tired of the business, or unable to continue in it, and 'a replacing of them by new men. Of course many such changes will take place now. There is alio a prospeot of a pretty extensive interchange of seats among the Members—representatives who have displeased one constituency offering their services to another which does not know them so well, or perhapkappreciates them better. But when all is over, it' -will be:found:that what the Fool in Lear says of the old King's two daughters is.aot inapplicable to the old and new Houses of Commons—" Though the one's as like the other as a crab's like an apple, it wail taste as like the other as a crab does to
a crab." • — , -
