-Colonel Marcus Beresford, Member for Southwark, has offered his resignation
to his constituents, feeling the pressure of brokers health and of some domestic trials, but the Conservative Council' of the borough declined to accept it. The election would have been an important one, as no metropolitan borough has fallen vacant since the Eastern crisis arose, and opinion would have been tested under circumstances in which defeat would have been fatal to the Tories. They are stronger in Southwark than in any of the great boroughs, Liverpool excepted, they have an excel- lent candidate in Mr. Clarke, and they are full of passionate war-feeling. Nevertheless, with so many Nonconformists and skilled artisans upon the Register, the election may not have been as certain as they imagine, and the Conservative Council evidently think the risk too considerable to be run with- out necessity. A defeat in Southwark would have shaken the Ministry just now more than the loss of any county.
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