In the Saffron-Walden division of Essex, where the poll w as
declared last Saturday, the Liberal candidate, Mr. J. A. Pease, has been returned by a majority of 792. Mr. Pease, who sat for the Tyneside division of Northumberland from 1892 till 1900, is claimed by the Daily Chronicle as a Liberal Imperialist; and the correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, writing on the eve of the poll, candidly admits that it is im- possible to assert that the electors of the division "are going to vote in condemnation of the policy which led to the war or in favour of a just- and generous settlement." Mr. Pease modestly describes his success as "mainly due to organisation." But the figures of the preceding three elections, at which the Liberal majority was reduced from 1,881 in 1892 to 110 in 1900, certainly lend themselves to a more optimistic view of the force of the Liberal reaction.