Two by-elections of importance are pending—in the Hitchin division of
Hertfordshire and in South Somerset. In both cases it is of the utmost moment that the Unionist candidates shall be returned. We have little doubt that the electors of the Hitchin division will restore to the House of Commons one of the ablest and most independent members who have ever sat there—Lord Robert Cecil. In South Somerset we have very great hopes that Mr. Aubrey Herbert, who is well known as an intrepid traveller and admired as a writer, may be returned. All who know Mr. Vivian respect and like him, though it is painful to some of his friends to see so staunch an advocate of free exchange supporting a Govern- ment of surreptitious Socialism. In any case we would urge all Unionist Free Traders in the division and all men who are independent of narrow party ties to vote for Mr. Aubrey Herbert, and so show to the Government that Englishmen do not mean to allow the United Kingdom to be broken up under a sorry and squalid system of pseudo-Federalism and the strength of the nation to be weakened by the distribution of the sodden crusts of Socialism administered out of a Radical pap-boat. (Mr. Lloyd George's rhetoric, is contagious.)
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