Since the result of the Liverpool and Southwark elections were
known, the rumours of a speedy Dissolution have rapidly multiplied, a great many of both parties holding that there
will be a dissolution before Easter. If this should be so, it will be the attempt of the Tories to fasten the reproach of sympathy with Home-rulers and sympathy with Obstruction on the Liberal party, and we fear there will be very little scrupulousness shown in the character of their imputations. Lord George Hamilton, speaking at a meeting of the Middlesex Conservative Regis- tration Association held in Cannon Street, last Tuesday, freely charged-the Liberals with a close alliance with the Home- rulers,—adducing as his proof the Sheffield election, where the Liberal candidate steadily refused the Home-rule pledge, no less than the Liverpool election, where he more or less accepted that pledge. In the Press, there is a disposition shown, which is still more unscrupulous, to charge the Liberal leaders with a kindness for the policy of Obstruction,—a policy which they have always done their best utterly to discountenance and put down. It is calculated, with some truth, however, that if only enough mud is cast at the Liberals, some of it is sure to stick. True; but will it dirty those whom it strikes half so effectually, as it will dirty those who deliber- ately dabble in it to discredit an upright opponent ?
