NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE elections will result in a large majority for the Unionists. That fact is abundantly clear, though many of the elections are still undecided. It may be that the Liberals will still rally and will slightly reduce the Unionist majority as it stood after the Election of 1895, but practically the Unionist party will come back to Parliament numerically undiminished, and, as we trust, greatly increased in strength and vigour, and able to communicate that strength and vigour to the Administra- tion. Regarded from the plebiscitary point of view the results of the Election are most striking. The country is clearly determined (1) that the settlement in South Africa shall be sound and thorough, and shall set at • rest for ever all notion of a resurrection of the Boer oligarchies ; (2) that the Union shall be maintained ; (3) that the question of effi- ciency in the administration of the Army shall be taken up and dealt with in earnest. Those are results the importance of which cannot be exaggerated. We have dealt with the elections at length elsewhere, and will only say here that we trust that the Government, having received so full and so satisfactory a mandate from the electors, will prepare to execute it with the utmost energy and thoroughness.
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