The result of the Whitehaven election was another Unionist success,
for though there was no gain of a seat, the Unionist, Sir James Bain, polled considerably more votes than Mr. Cavendish Bentinck in 1886, and two more even than the- same candidate in 1885. The three elections may be compared as follows :— 1885... Conservatives 1,336 Liberals 1,125 Majority... 211 1880... Unionists 1,216 Gladstonians 1,110 Majority... 100 1891... Unionists ... 1,338 Gladstonians 1,105 Majority... 233.
Sir James Bain thus made a better poll than the old Member, the Right Hon. G. A. F. Cavendish Bentinck, on either. occasion; while Mr. Shee polled fewer by five votes than in 1886, and considerably fewer than Mr. Gully, Q.0., the Liberal candidate of 1885, who carried the undivided Liberal Party with him. The improvement is a trifle, and the borough is a, relatively unimportant one, which we can hardly take as repre- sentative of the country at large. But coming after the great triumph at Aston Manor, and the not inconsiderable triumph in the Woodstock Division of Oxfordshire, the relatively trivial gain may indicate a diffused tendency in the English con- stituencies. Of the pending elections, the one in which the result appears to be most doubtful is that for the Harborough Division of Leicestershire, where Sir George Trevelyan has been doing his utmost to stimulate Gladstonian zeal.
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