Mr. Milner Gibson seems to have lost his seat at
Ashton-under- Lyne by being too good. His adversary, Mr. Mellor, was supported by the publicans, and seems to deserve their support. At least he is said by a correspondent of the Times to have attended a publicans' dinner in 1865 and to have made a speech of this kind : -" When he was in Paris two or three years ago they would have allowed him to have gone into the houses of licensed victuallers on a Sunday morning to play at dominoes, cards, or billiards, and he could have mounted an omnibus and gone wherever he chose ; -and he asked himself these questions—' Is this despotism ? Is this a gagged press? If it be, good God ! I hope to see my own more gagged than it is yet, for I find my privileges at home nothing to be compared to this.' He liked to be a little free in his action. He did not want any of those psalm-singing hypocrites to interfere with him. The responsibility of going upwards or downwards Tested with himself, and not with any one else." Is that the reason why Mr. Mellor has been elected to dragoon Irish Catholics into the Protestant faith ?
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