6 JANUARY 1883, Page 11

Lord Elcho, after a very long experience as a Commoner—

he has sat for forty years in the House of Commons—has sue- -ceeded to the Peerage, through the death of his father, the Earl of Wemyss and March, in his eighty-seventh year. Hadding- tonshire only returned Lord Elcho by the very narrow majority of 44 in 1880, and it is to be hoped that we may now rescue the seat from the grasp of the Tories. Mr. Finlay, the Liberal candidate, is said to be a little unsound on the burning question -of the Established Church in Scotland,—that is, he is not eager for Disestablishment. But surely, even if Haddingtonshire has to be wrenched piecemeal from the grasp of the Tories, and if it takes two separate efforts to achieve it, it would be better to achieve something and transfer the seat to a Scotch Liberal who is hazy on the Church question, than to achieve nothing -and leave a Scotch county in the hands of the Tories. Lord Salisbury will gain a new follower in the Earl of Wemyss and March.