The vacancy in the Chelmsford division caused by the resignation
of Sir F. Came Reach was filled on Tuesday by the return of the Unionist candidate, Mr. Pretyman, the figures being as follows :—Mr. E. C. Pretyman (0.), 6,152; Mr. A. H. Deuce (L.), 3,587; Conservative majority, 2,565. In the last twenty-three years there have been four contested and three uncontested elections, at all of which Conservatives have been returned. But while in 1900 Sir F. Carne Reach's majority was 3,129, in 1906 it dropped to 454. The total number of votes cast on Tuesday- was 363 larger than in 1906, and on this slightly larger poll the Conservative vote has tribreased by upwards of 1,200, while the Liberal vote is 874 less. The election, which was disfigured by a good deal of rowdyism and violence, makes no difference in the balance of pales, but -is mine the less a striking evidence of the unpopularity of the present Administration. If the country were burning to abolish the Lords the polls would tell a very different tale.
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