The Middlesborough election is a thorough Liberal triumph. Colonel Sadler,
the Conservative candidate, is a very moderate Conservative, though he supports the Government on the Eastern Question. Mr. Isaac Wilson opposes the Government heart and soul on the Eastern Question, and is a very strong Liberal in other matters as well. Mr. Isaac Wilson, however, gained 5,307 votes against only 2,415 given to Colonel Sadler,—very much more than two to one. Nevertheless, the Conservative party in Middlesborough have gained some ground if it be true, as " Dod " states, that at the
last contest the fight was between two Liberals, while the Con- servative candidate, Mr. Hopkins, gained only 956 votes. At the election of 1874, Mr. H. W. F. Bolckow, the successful Liberal, polled 3,717 votes ; while Mr. John Kane (also described as a Liberal) polled 1,541 votes. The Conservative proper of that election, Mr. Hopkins, had but a fourth of the number of votes given to Mr. Bolckow. On the present occasion, the Liberal- Conservative candidate gained within five hundred votes of a half, as also did Mr. John Kane on the last occasion. But possibly Mr. John Kane was, like Colonel Sadler, a Liberal-Conservative, though calling himself a Liberal, and in that case the relative position of the two parties is not much changed, though each would have greatly increased in numbers. Middlesborough, at all events, gives out no uncertain sound. It condemns the Govern- ment with emphasis and cordiality.
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