Mr. Richards (Liberal and Labour) Sir J. Cockburn (Tariff Reform)
..„ ••• „,„ ••• „, '7,995
8,360 --
Free-trade majority ... ... 4,635 At the last election the late Sir William Harcourt had a majority of 3,575 over his Conservative opponent, Mr. Iltyd Gardner. Considering the prestige that attached to Sir William Harcourt's name and to the fact that he repre- sented a united party, and considering also the fact that Labour candidates are notoriously "bad pollers," the result is a.s significant of the view taken by the country in regard to Free-trade and Protection as that obtained at any recent by- election. The majority has risen by a thousand. It cannot be said at this election that it was "all the Education Act," for Sir John Cockburn was as strongly opposed to it as his opponent. Indeed, so Radical were his views that the question of Free-trade alone divided him from Mr. Richards. We must add that the conduct of the Prime Minister and the Unionist leaders generally in allowing Sir John Cockburn to go to the poll as the adopted candidate of the Unionist party, without a word of protest from them, was one which calls for the reprobation of all sincere Unionists. The complete apathy with which such a representative of Unionism was received by the Unionist party gives deplorable proof of the demoralisation which has overtaken it since the raising of the Fiscal issue. The support of the Times and of the bulk of the Unionist Press, followed by Mr. Chamberlain's direct support, was apparently only regarded as "very clever" electioneering. It is such electioneering as that which sends political parties to wander for fifteen years in the wilderness.
The municipal elections have ended in a victory for the Liberals, who score a total gain of between fifty, and sixty
Previous page
