The return of Sir Charles Dilke for the Forest of
Dean Division of Gloucestershire by a very large majority (5,360 against 2,942 for the Conservative, Mr. Colchester-Wemyss), gives the Labour Party a very competent head, who may very likely prove to be a thorn in Mr. Gladstone's side. Sir Charles Dilke has already declared himself for the payment of Members, and for the defraying of all election expenses out of the public rates or taxes, as one of the first reforms which ought to be brought about ; and we may take it that his influence will be thrown into the same scale as that of Mr. Labonchere for delaying the production of the Home-rule Bill till this change has been accomplished. Sir Charles Dilke is amongst the first politicians of his day in general knowledge, and especially in his command of the various threads of European foreign policy. We do not, however, regard his political judgment as of at all a high order. He has but little instinct for popular feeling, as the fiasco in his early and rather theatrical Republican outburst proved. But still, he has enough industry and enough capacity to have placed him in the front rank of politicians, had he not lost the respect of the English people by the scandals of his private life.
