The petition against the return of Mr. Balfour for East
Manchester was dismissed on Thursday, with costs against the petitioners. Those gentlemen seem to have been blinded either by party feeling or false information as to the character
of their case, there being practically no evidence in support of the bribery charges, except that of one Green, a barber, about whom the Judges said, through Mr. Justice Cave, according to the Times' report of the trial, " there was a negotiation, which did not reflect credit on any party to it, as a result of which it was arranged with Green that he was to have £200 for his evidence—an arrangement which certainly did not tem41O.13e production of truth, and might have had some in- fluence on. Green's mind in the case." The Judge, therefore, rejected most of Green's evidence as " false," and was almost contemptuous about the evidence as to treating, forty-two charges having been made, and evidence offered in only five, of which five only one raised a doubt in the Judges' minds. The case, in fact, broke down utterly, and should never have been brought forward against a man of Mr. Balfour's known character, especially from the Liberal side. Radicals, at all events, should recognise the danger in which all poor candi- dates stand from proceedings in which, however pure they may have been, thousands of pounds must be spent to establish their purity.
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