The citizens of Stroud deserve great praise. They have evidently
made up.their minds that the creation of a great body of electoral law is much more important than the representation of Stroud, and have resolved to sacrifice their borough to the general good. That is a highly creditable design, and they are carrying it out with a persistency truly British, having so arranged matters as to afford the Election Judges the opportunity of sitting three times in one year. Less patriotic persons might say they were moved by party spite, or even by an irresistible craving for bribes, but that is obviously incorrect. There is no party spite, for after electing Mr. Winterbotham, they replaced him on his death by a strong Conservative, Mr. Dorington. The Dissolu- tion coming, they rejected Mr. Dorington, and returned two Liberals, but when they were unseated for bribery, they returned Mr. Dorington again. He has now been unseated, and of course, the borough, true to its self-sacrificing principles, will elect a Liberal, and when he is unseated in his turn, will adopt a Tory. Nor are the electors corrupt, for at each election the bribery becomes less, the citizens whittling it away till they finally ascer-
tain the exact quantity which, with Baron Bramwell on the Bench, will not unseat their members. Considering the money these in- veessant petitions cost, the amount of time they waste, and the risk' they involve to the franchise- of -Strand, theoonduct of her -citizens deserves, especially from lawyers- and constitutionalists, 'the fullest recognition. We -only hope the money-is not all spent, for a.perfectly pure-election in Stroud would 'deprive the borough .-o£ its principal raison d'être.
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