THE VALUE OF BY-ELECTIONS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sia,—The inference that by-elections are no true forecast of the succeeding General Election, because the Liberals rapidly lost seats from 1881 to 1885 and yet held their own fairly in the latter year, is surely utterly baseless, as ignoring the enormous change in the balance of power effected by the Franchise and Redistribution Acts of 1884-85. In the boroughs, the loss of seats in 1885 was quite as great as that indicated by previous by-elections ; and a very little study of the figures shows that but for the new voters in the counties and the redistribution of seats, the Liberal Party would have suffered in 1885 a reverse comparable to that of the Tories in 1880.
By-elections may often give contradictory, and therefore un- certain indications ; but when once their general tendency is manifested, they are the surest guide we can have to public
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