At the date of our last issue we counted up
the Liberal gains as 51, and the Liberal losses at 17, leaving a balance of 34 net gains in our favour. Since then the tide has flowed free and fast. We have gained a seat in East Aberdeenshire, Ashton-under- Lyne, Aylesbury, Ayr District, Bedfordshire, Berwickshire, two seats at Brighton, a seat in Buteshire, Carmarthenshire, Carnar- vonshire, Christchurch, Cricklade, East Cornwall, West Cumber- land, East Derbyshire, Donegal, Dublin, Dumfriesshire, North Durham, Herefordshire, Gravesend, Huntingdonshire, two seats in South-East Lancashire, one in South Leicestershire, Maryle- bone, Midlothian, Monmouth District, two seats at Northampton, one in North Nottinghamshire, South Norfolk, Newcastle-on- Tyne, Peebles and Selkirk, Pembrokeshire, Perthshire, Radnor- shire, Roxburghshire, St. Ives, Salisbury, Scarborough, Shaftesbury, Southampton, Stafford, East Staffordshire, North Staffordshire, Staleybridge, Stirlingshire, Stoke- upon-Trent, Tyrone, Wareham, Warrington, South Warwick- shire, Waterford County, Wicklow County, Isle of Wight, Wigton, York, and two in the Eastern Division of the West Riding. In this list we have not counted mere Home- rule gains, even when they are gains from the Conserva- tives. We have lost seats to the Conservatives at Bandon, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, East Cumberland, Helston, and Leitrim. Deducting these six seats from the sixty-one won, we have gained in the week a net balance of fifty-five seats, which, added to the thirty-four recorded last week, give a net gain of 89,—counting for 178 on a division, Nor does this really show the whole gain. In four cases, at
least, a sound Liberal has been substituted for a Liberal who, like Mr. Samuda (Tower Hamlets) or Mr. Yeaman (Dundee), voted with the Tories, so that the real gain is more than the apparent gain. It is certain that the solid Liberal majority will be at least 110, and, that even if the Parnellites desert in a body to the Tories,—a contingency which appears probable, not to say desirable,—the Liberal majority would exceed sixty. We have already gained thirty-five county seats, and lost only two.
