The Anti-Corn-law League have not added Salisbury to their conquests.
It might be observed last week that we had no sanguine expectation they would. Salisbury is precisely the kind of place where the influence of the League would be at its minimum ; for the town lies in the centre of an agricultural district ; and as re- spects the Corn-laws and Free-trade, the utmost pronounced by the result is, that the conversion of Salisbury to the new lights is not yet completed. But the contest was not solely, nor even chiefly, between Free-trade and Protection. The borough pos- sesses a very small and accessible constituency ; it is surrounded by old family influences ; it is a cathedral town, with a Church preponderancy. It is not surprising that the Conservative candi- date should have a majority of 47, but that all those influences— Protectionist, family, corrupt, and clerical—should only make up so small a majority among them. It is plain that political considera- tions swayed more than economical : we have the testimony of the Times to the fact. Salisbury was more determined not to have a Whig than it was to defeat the League. Nor was the course adopted by the Liberal party calculated to avoid merely political antagonism : instead of boldly appearing as a pure Free-trader, Mr. BOO VERIE absolutely repudiated the title of " Leaguer" •' he ad- mitted the League to be his ally, but would not identify. himself with it. The League was an ally on sufferance, liable to share the Whig defeat ; and it has shared it. But the occupation of the League is not gone. A petition against the return is talked of, which may still reverse the decision. And the League has threatened to prosecute the perpetrators of bribery and other corruption. Having triumphed hitherto, it was perhaps politic not to waste its funds in prosecuting the defeated corruptionists, who, according to its organs, were not absent from the previous elections of the new series ; but now—if the charge of bribery is not mere railing and empty sound—now is the dale to make a beginning in repressing election-vices by the new method. A triumph in the court of law would be yet more striking and int- pressive than one at the poll.
