The Hackney election resulted satisfactorily, on the whole, though we
should have been better satisfied with a heavier vote, —which, however, at a by-election, it seems impossible to secure. The Liberal candidate, Professor Stuart, polled, in the longer hours now given for polling, 14,540 votes, against 18,366 given for Mr. Fawcett in the shorter hours of the polling-day in 1880. The Conservative candidate, Mr. MacAlister, polled 8,543 votes, against 10,322 given in 1880 for the Conservative candidate of that year, Mr. Bartley. It is clear, then, that both parties lost votes by the diminished interest of a by-election, but that the Conservatives, who were fighting with desperation, lost somewhat less than the Liberals, who were secure of the result. This means that, in spite of the glamour of Fair-trade, the Conservatives have virtually gained no ground between 1880 and 1881; to say nothing of the fact that Professor Stuart could hardly expect such support as was given to an old and favoured Member like Mr. ]i'awcett. If we compare Professor Stuart's vote, not with Mr. Fawcett's in 1880, but with that given to Mr. Holms,—also an old and popular Member,—which was not quite 17,000, the slight Liberal loss becomes a slight Liberal gain.
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