One of the most remarkable of the Liberal victories is
that at Oxford, where Mr. Hall, a great favourite with the people, as well as a brewer, who is commonly supposed to exert no small amount of political influence by virtue of his profession alone, was beaten by Mr. Chitty by the rather narrow majority of 10 votes. Mr. Hall polled 112 votes fewer than Sir William Harcourt. In March, 1874, when Lord Cardwell vacated the same seat by his elevation to the House of Lords, Mr. Hall polled nearly 500 votes above his Liberal opponent, Mr. J. D. Lewis. It had been rumoured beforehand that Sir William Harcourt's election was more seriously in danger than even Mr. Chitty'e, but as it turns out, it was the Conservative who was imperilled,—a change which can only be ascribed to the wave of pure political feeling which, rising in the North, has made itself felt almost in direct proportion to the latitude of the place.
