Mr. John Locke, Q.C., the shrewd and able Member for
Southwark, died on Thursday, at the age of seventy-four. He was a strong Liberal, and a man of much humour, of whom it used to be said that he was the only Member of Parliament who ever made Mr. Gladstone laugh. His death creates a vacancy in Southwark, where there will be, before long, another test-election, to confirm or throw doubt upon the verdict of Liverpool. In the by-election of 1870, a Conservative, Mr. Marcus Beresford, headed the poll ; but the vote was unusually small, and Mr. Odger, the Liberal candidate, was probably not a favourite. But even in 1874, Mr. Locke beat Mr. Beresford by only 185 votes (5,901 against 5,716). The Liberals, however, on that occasion unfortunately divided their second votes between Mr. Odger and Mr. Andrew Dunn. Let us hope that this time they will be united.
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