In the other metropolitan boroughs it is exceedingly difficult to
anticipate the changes which the Ballot and the supposed Con- servative reaction may produce. Mr. Ayrton's seat for the Tower Hamlets is seriously endangered, a result which, iu spite of our utter dislike of many of Mr. Ayrton's official acts and moral cruelties, we cannot contemplate with satisfaction. He is a man of very rare abilities, and men of very rare abilities are. not increasing in numbers in the House of Commons. In Marylebone the prospects look better for the reputa- tion of the borough than they have done for some tiro back. The competitors are Mr. Thomas Hughes, air T.. Chambers, and Mr. D. Grant, on the Liberal Ade, and Mr. Forsyth, Q.C., on the Conservative,—four candidates for two seats. If Mr. Hughes, as we hope, be returned, in spite of the tradesmen's horror of his co-operative principles, by the friends of the workmen and of the State Church, the borough will have made a change for the better, whether it assign him for his col- league the ultra-Protestant Common Serjeant, the Conservative Queen's Counsel, or the representative of the Marylebone trades- men. There is but one advantage in a political career as bad as that of Marylebone,—that even the chances are in favour of a change for the better. At the present moment, a really good choice is within its grasp.
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