Quite a crop of by-elections are impending. There is a
vacancy for the City. As the General Election is probably close at hand, and certainly very near, and as the Gladstonians would have exceedingly little chance of gaining the seat vacated by the death of Mr. T. C. Baring, Mr. Henry Hacks Gibbs, who had at first declined on the excuse of age, has consented to stand, and will no doubt be elected to-day with- out a contest. His high character and great generosity have gained him great popularity amongst the Conservatives. In the Woodstock Division of Oxfordshire, where Mr. Maclean's resignation made the vacancy, a lively contest is going on, Mr. Benson, of Balliol College, the Gladstonian candidate, having arrived from Spain, and Mr. Morrell, the Conservative candidate, being hard at work with the full support of the Liberal Unionists, under Mr. Brodriek, Warden of Merton. Mr. Jesse Collings is doing his best for Mr. Morrell, and Mr. Jesse Collings is a power amongst the agricultural labourers. The contest will be a close one.
