Mr. Brodrick is making a fight at Woodstock, noteworthy for
more than one reason. He has a Duke against him who can ruin half the voters,—though his Grace has been compelled to say he will not try,—yet be has the courage to fight the battle of the intellectual Radicals with their true weapons, argument, elo- quence, and appeals to the conscience of the electors. Instead of bribing the electors with monstrous promises, or telling them the Duke cannot hurt them, Mr. Brodrick tells them he can, warns them that they will shortly be "under fire," asks them to en- counter political martyrdom, appeals to their manliness and their sense of right to give an independent decision. He wants their children to be able to point to them with pride as soldiers in a good cause. "Very vague !" all that, the Clubmen will say ; but that is the way to move Englishmen when they have, or think they have, oppression to resist. The Oxford Liberals are crowding round Mr. Brodrick, but we wish Mr. Vernon Harcourt had not warned the electors that their best chance of saving their borough was to elect a Liberal. They have no chance if they elect Mr. Bright himself, and it is unfair to tell them they have. The very best a Woodstock elector can do is to die like a soldier, and not like a rat in a hole.
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