Mr. John Morley made a great speech at Sheffield on
Tuesday, in which he sang a song of triumph over the Govan election. We ourselves told Lord Salisbury, when he spoke of Scotland's having come round to Unionist views, that we saw no evidence at all of any such conversion, and we quite agree with Mr. Morley that the Govan election proves Lord Salisbury to have been as much mistaken as he ever was in his life; but, for all that, the loss of a few more seats in Scotland will not injure us much, especially if we can gain a few seats in England, as we may well hope to do. Mr. Morley's exul- tation as to the Glasgow seat is certainly excessive. But his exultation in the return of Liberals to the London County Council was not only excessive but infantine. Considering that many of the Conservatives and most of the Unionist Liberals voted for the candidates, not in order to carry out Mr. Morley's Clerkenwell programme, but in order that they might work the provisions of the London Local Government Act in a reasonable spirit, these elections are just as much or as little ground for Mr. Morley's triumph, as Mr. Morley's own election to be a member of a new English Academy of Literature would be for the triumph of the Radicals with whom on Irish questions he may happen to agree.
