We commented last week on the extraordinary completeness in Durham
and Cornwall,—the mining counties, and even in East Cornwall, we have since lost again the seat which in 1868 we won back,—there are very feweeats which the Liberals have won by mere force of Liberal majorities. Of course the minority- clause Members, now mostly Liberal, cannot be -so ranked. Again, four Liberal county eeats have certainly been won, in part at least, by the territorial influence of the Duke of Devonshire, a legitimate influence, but not one that is any testimony to the strength of Liberal opinion. There remain—excluding the mining counties and Wales—just nine Liberal county seats due neither to territorial influence nor to the minority system of representation, a beggarly account of empty boxes. Obviously the counties need more than ever to be rescued from the political anaesthesia of Villadom.
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