• A marked feature of the Election has been the
gains made by the Unionists in the English counties. The counties which were supposed to he going to prove the stronghold of Liberalism have shown their determination not to be misled by Ministerial clap-trap and inflammatory nonsense about the Peers and the people. The rural voter may be slow, but he possesses a very great fund of common-sense, and is not easily deluded by party rhetoric. As was inevitable, there has been an enormous amount of nonsense talked during the course of the polling. For example, it has been stated that all the .great seaports and all the great centres of industry have sup- ported the Government. That sounds very well, but it is only true if we leave out London and also Liverpool. But London, unfortunately for this theory, happens to be not only the greatest seaport in the United Kingdom, but also the greatest manufacturing centre. From the Radical point of view London is never to be regarded as express- ing the view of the People. Yet, as a correspondent shows in another column, London throughout our history has always taken the sanest and most permanent view of political and national questions. What makes the Radical contempt for the opinion of London all the more extraordinary is the fact that no one can possibly pretend that Londoners are coerced or intimidated or bribed or in any sense "unduly influenced" by the richer or more educated classes. London constituencies give their decisions with more freedom than any other constituencies in the kingdom.
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