The Member for West Surrey, Mr. Briscoe, is dead, and
all the , papers, following Dod, are speaking of him as a moderate Liberal. In fact, however, he was returned in 1868 by the Conservatives to oppose Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy, which he did very consistently, and not only the Liberal Irish policy, but the Liberal policy on other great questions, like the University Teats' Bill for example. In a word, Mr. Briscoe, though a Palmerstonian Liberal, was in no sense of the word a Liberal since his last election, and was re- turned precisely because he was not one. If, however, the Liberals now choose to contest the seat, they should put forward a better candidate than Mr. Pennington, who has no local influence in the constituency and no external prestige to make up for the want of it. The Conservatives are exceedingly strong in West Surrey, and Mr. Pennington only polled, in 1868, 1,757 votes, to 2,826 given for Mr. Briscoe.
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