NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TDTresult of the Liverpool election will be known as this heet reaches our readers' hands. Any speculation upon it would therefore be useless ; but we may mention that up to the last moment both parties remained confident, though the Tory confidence was not as perfect as at first. The battle on that side has throughout been conducted by a Tory Cabinet Minister, Lord Sandou, who has made a series of speeches, all based upon two ideas,—that the Liberals care nothing for the Empire, and that Lord Ramsay has pledged himself to the dis- memberment of the kingdom. The breach of etiquette in making a single election a kind of Cabinet question is unusual, and in the event of a Tory defeat will directly accentuate its meaning. It is reported that the virulence of the contest is increased by a sense of the large local interests involved. In spite of the large majority obtained by the Liberals in the municipal elections, the Council remains Conservative, the Aldermen being chiefly Tory ; but it is believed that if Lord Ramsay is elected, this will soon be altered, and the powers of the municipality, with its large patronage and expenditure, transferred to the Opposition. Liverpool, in fact, will become a great Liberal borough, a change which the existing rulers of the town, who have hitherto thought themselves secure, cannot contemplate with patience. A well-informed correspondent telegraphs at 4 p.m. on Friday :—" The most unusual energy characterises this election. In the centre of the town almost every voter has polled."
