The Liberals have lost the late Sir Henry Jackson's seat
at Coveltry, and lost it by a large majority. The election came off on Saturday, and there polled for Mr. Eaton (the Conserva- tive), 4,011; for Sir Ughtred Shuttleworth (the Liberal), 3,568 ; majority, 443. At the general election, the highest Liberal, Sir H. Jackson, polled 4,184 votes, i.e., 173 votes more than Mr; Eaton polled on Saturday ; while the highest Conservative, Mr. Eaton himself, polled 4,008 votes, or only three less than he polled on Saturday, and 440 more than Sir Ughtred Shuttle- worth. A letter in the Daily News of Thursday partly explains the defeat. It seems that Sir Ughtred Shuttleworth was so very anxious not to be supposed to incur any suspicion of doubtful practices, that he did not employ half enough can- vassers, gave them no refreshments, and employed hardly any ssarriages to carry voters to the poll; while the Conservatives, though not laying themselves open to charges of corruption, were ;fairly lavish of all these appliances. Add to this that Mr. Eaton was well known and very popular in Coventry, that Sir Ughtred Shuttleworth was a stranger, and that by fixing the election for Saturday the time given for beating up the outvoters was too short, and, no doubt, a good deal of the failure is explained. Still, almost all failures can, as a rule, be explained; and the ex- planation is really of no use, except to encourage those who fail, to do better next time.
Previous page
