The election of Mr. Arch,—the great leader of the agricultural
labourers,—for the North-Western Division of Norfolk, by a majority of 640 against Lord H. Bentinck, is a critical event in the history of our Constitution. We believe that there will be eleven Members who may be said to represent directly the interests of labour, in the New Parliament, and that every one of them is a man of high character. This will be a guarantee that the interests of labour will be advocated in the new House of Commons, not merely by a very powerful party, but by a party with spokesmen who have themselves experienced the hardships of the lot they wish to alleviate. And of these, Mr. Arch will be, doubtless, the most distinguished and the most generally respected. No one can.deny that his career has been from the first an honourable, a conscientious, and a disinterested one.
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