Mr. Justice Grove has decided, what it has always seemed
to us inevitable that he should decide, that the blundering about polling-places at Hackney has invalidated the election of Sir Charles Reed and Mr. Holma. The question turned on the pro- vision in the 13th section of the Ballot Act, that no elec- tion should be declared invalid by reason of a non-compliance with the rules contained in the first section of that Act, or for any mistake in the use of the forms given in the second schedule to the Act, if it appeared to the tribunal having cognisance of the question that the election was conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the body of the Act, and that such non- compliance or mistake did not affect the result of the election. But Mr. Justice Grove pointed out that the virtual disfranchise- ment of about 5,000 electors through the complete closing of two polling-places (South Hackney and Homerton) on the polling- day, and the great delay in opening others of them, was substan- tially a non-compliance with the principles of the Act, and at least not unlikely to have altered the result, seeing that the de- feated Conservative was only 583 votes below the lowest Liberal. He declined altogether to listen to merely conjectural evidence as to what would have been the result if the polling-places had all been properly opened, declaring that the section referred-to only meant that an election should not be voided for trivial informali- ties, but only for substantial illegalities which might fairly have altered the result. Sir Charles Reed will not again contest the seat. Mr. Helms and Professor Fawcett will fight together against Lieutenant Gill, and we trust that both may be returned, —Professor Fawcett where he ought to be, at the head of the poll. A new writ was moved for on Thursday evening.
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