7 NOVEMBER 1896, Page 17

The candidates for East Bradford who were nominated yesterday, and

will go to the poll on Tuesday, were Captain Greville (Unionist), Mr. Billson (Gladstonian), and Mr. Keir Hardie (Labour party). At the last eleetion there was no

Labour candidate, but the late Mr. Byron Reed beat Mr. W. S Caine, the Home-rule candidate, by 704 votes (5,843 against 5,139). In the present case Mr. Keir Hardie will probably carry off both some Unionist and perhaps many Gladstonian votes; and his party boasts that he will run Mr. Billson very close even if be does not beat him. But in all probability Captain Grey ille (who was in the field long before Mr. Billson) will carry the seat, perhaps by an even greater majority than that gained by Mr. Byron Reed. The truth is that Mr. Billson, though a good Radical and a. Home-ruler, is a Liver- pool not a Bradford man, and it is quite probable that with the Education question uppermost in the public mind, he may not even secure the full Irish vote. The Irish Catholics are thorough-going denominationalists, and may some of them think more of the question of denominational education,---to which Mr. Billson shows no favour,—than of Irish Home- rule, a proposal which has been flogged to death.