NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Liberal party has been smitten hip and thigh from Dan to Beersheba. The result yesterday afternoon, after the return 'for the City and for Westminster had become known, but before the result of the other metropolitan elections of Thursday was declared, was that the Liberals had gained 26 seats and the Con- servatives 65, showing a net gain for the Conservatives of 39 seats, making 78 on a division. As the Liberal majority was about 64 at the time of the Dissolution, this more than .obliterates it, leaving a majority of some 14 votes for the Con- servatives. There are still more than 220 elections to be made -known, and amongst them we shall have many losses, so that we may be quite sure the Conservatives will have at least a working majority of 40—more probably 50—when the fight is over. There can be no question but that this is a mighty victory. Yet it is one gained without a policy, nay, in the boast of having no policy, and therefore without either the inconveniences or the still greater advantages of a framework of principle. The new Government must belong to the order of Invertebrate, or at most to the Ascidians, where the first germ only of a backbone is to be discerned.
