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Gabriel were in Lord Rosebery's place, the results of the General Election would not be materially different. John Bull, I said, is going to take it easy for a short time, and he is absolutely impervious to the different accents of those who want to disturb his slumber. The more we fret and fume the more he will settle himself into his armchair and forget all about it. The sluggish and somewhat lethargic John Bull has been surfeited with the heroics of legislation for the last fifteen years, and is now in the state which I called the lethargy of the easy-chair. "It is not Conservatism, or devotion to the Union, or anything that can be dignified by the name of principle. It is simply

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decided upon, could not lead the Liberal forces for a desperate attack upon the citadel of reaction. Fifth, the Indian Cotton Duties. These are said to have cost us a dozen seats. One of the two seats which we won in Lancashire was gained from a Unionist who supported the late Government on this question. Lancashire voted according to what it believed to be its commercial interests, the electors thinking much more of keeping their trade with India than of thwarting the Nationalist aspirations of Ireland. Sixth, the Independent Labour Party. Some 30,000 men, a handful representing less than one per cent. of the voters, desiring to force the pace at the time when John Bull wished to snooze, detached itself from the Liberal ranks and occasioned the loss of several seats. In the absolutely unbroken series of disasters which attended the whole of the Independent Labour Party's candidates, especially in the return for West Ham, the Liberal party had the only consolation which has befallen it at this election. In addition to these causes, some of which are general and other local, there may be added some others which perhaps produced some effect, such as the absence of Mr. Gladstone, the lack of any palpable enthusiasm among the Liberal leaders for each other, the general feeling that as a strong Liberal majority would be out of the question, it would be better to put Lord Salisbury in with a good backing, and so forth, and so forth.

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From the Westminster Budget.] [July 19, 1895.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE INDEPEN-
DENT LABOUR PARTY.
"Can't get in myself, but I can keep a few

the natural longing for repose which others out, anyway." overtakes nations at irregular inter

vals after spells of political experiment." We need no other explanation to account for what has happened. It is a change of mood, not a change of principle.

Causes.

may

The various secondary questions which Contributory have contributed to this change of mood be arranged thus in their order of importance:-First, disunited Ireland, for while the Irish are quarrelling among themselves you will never convince John Bull of the necessity for Home Rule. Second, the Local Veto Bill. The British electors, not one-third of whom are teetotal, were not enthused' by the proposal to give a two-thirds voting majority in any locality power to confiscate the property of the publican, while the publicans naturally fought for their lives. Third, Disestablishment. The attack on the Welsh Establishment attracted no enthusiasm outside Wales, while it galvanised into hostility the latent electioneering force of the English Church. The Liberation Society as a political force has been steadily going downhill since 1871, when the Education Act, as accepted and administered by Nonconformists themselves, knocked the bottom out of the old Nonconformist contention that the State had nothing to do with the teaching of religion. Fourth, the Liberal leaders not having been able to make up their minds as to whether to end, mend, or clip the claws of, the Peers, or how to carry out any of these projects, whichever of them was ultimately

Results and Forecasts.

It is a curious thing that although all these causes catalogued above were known to be in existence before Parliament was dissolved, there were many, including some at the headquarters of the Liberal organisation, who absolutely refused to recognise that the election could only end in one way, and in both organisations, with the possible exception of Captain Middleton, nobody expected they would result in a Tory majority of 152. The general calculation was that the Tories would have a majority of from thirty to fifty. Mr. Chamberlain is said to have counted upon a minimum of seventy. Before the polls were opened the only prediction which gave Lord Salisbury over a hundred majority was one obtained by no process of calculation, but by a communication

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NO OTHER COTTAGES ALLOWED IN THIS VILLAGE

From the Westminster Gazette.]

THE MODEL VILLAGE.

good humour, and his usual detachment from banality and the bitterness of partizanship. Mr. Chamberlain, on the other hand, was the slogger of the election. No two men could be more diverse in their character and in their method of conducting controversy than the respective chiefs of the Conservative and Liberal Unionist groups. Mr. Chamberlain achieved a great personal success, and has come out of the struggle as its foremost figure. He has been the hero of the election. The Liberal Unionists, who in 1886 numbered 78, are now 73 strong. If they went bodily over to the Opposition Lord Salisbury would still have a majority of six. The situation curiously reproduces that in 1885, when, if the Parnellites had voted with Lord Salisbury, the Liberals would have been in a minority of four. Both in 1885 and 1895 the Ministerial majority was made up by a coalition between two parties, each with distinct organisations, but working in common. In 1895 the objects and aims of the Liberal Unionists are much more in accord with those of the Conservatives than Mr. Parnell's were with the aims and objects of the Gladstonians in 1885.

[July 19, 1895.

A toy for little Tories; or, how to build a model village with Tory bricks.

I

which came by the much decried way of Borderland prophecy. As the prediction, which was printed before the first poll was opened, has attracted a good deal of attention, it may be of some interest to mention exactly how it was received. My hand was writing automatically very shortly after the close of the General Election of 1892. naturally asked whether anything was known as to what would happen. I say nothing as to the alleged agency which gave the answer, beyond remarking that it did not profess to be either a Mahatma or my own sub-consciousness. The answer was clear and definite. My hand wrote that the Home Rule Bill, which had not then been framed, would be rejected, that Mr. Gladstone would go, that Sir William Harcourt would lead the House for one session, that there would be a Dissolution, that Lord Salisbury would come back with a majority of 133 or 139, I forget which, that he would continue in office for some years, and that after three years he would pass a Local Government Bill for Ireland which would be as near Home Rule as he dared to make it. I claim no authority for this prediction; I simply mention it as a communication which, although written automatically in 1892, was more in accord with the facts as they turned out than any forecast of our astutest politicians.

Mr. Chamber-In the contest in the country, Mr. Balfour

lain's Position.

and Mr. Chamberlain were the great twin brethren of the Unionist cause. Mr.

Personal Incidents.

The election was singularly devoid of dramatic incidents, with the exception of the defeat of Sir William Harcourt at Derby and Mr. Morley at Newcastle. Probably no single incident waked up the electors to a consciousness of the fact that the Liberals were smashed so much as the unexpected defeat of Sir William Harcourt. The late Leader of the House loomed so large before the country as he swaggered in his temperance buskins, that when he was toppled over in the first day's fighting the whole stage shook. After that nothing seemed im

[graphic]

Balfour, as his wont, fought with a light hand and possible. It had some

MR.

GERALD BALFOUR, MP.,
Secretary for Ireland.

(From a photograph by Russell.)

IT may be as well to interpolate here, as a supplement to the preceding maps, the statistical results of the recent General Election :

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Conservative. 340

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411

71

THE MEMBERS RETURNED.

The United Kingdom and its component parts are represented after the election of July, 1895, as follows:

U.

UNITED KINGDOM.

Liberal Unionist

U.

Liberal

177

GREAT BRITAIN.
Conservatives 323)
Liberal Unionists 67
Liberal
Lib.

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390

H. R.

Anti-Parnellite

70

259

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Argyleshire, Ayr Burghs, Bedford, Bethnal-green, N.E., Boston, Bradford, E., Bradford, W., Bucks, N., Camberwell, N., Cambridgeshire (Chesterton), Cambridgeshire (Newmarket), Cambridgeshire (Wisbech), Cardiff District, Cheshire, Crewe, Coventry, Cumberland (Egremont), Derby, Derbyshire, S., Dumbartonshire, Elgin and Nairn, Essex (Malden), Finsbury, E., Finsbury, Central, Glamorgan, S., Glasgow, St. Rollox, Glasgow, College, Gloucestershire (Cirencester), Gloucesterhire (Stroud), Hackney, S., Halifax, Hull, E., Kensington, N., Kilmarnock Burghs, Lambeth (Kennington), Lancashire (Darwen), Lancashire (Eccles), Lancashire (Gorton), Lancashire (Ince), Lancashire (Lancaster), Lancashire (Middleton), Lancashire (Radcliffe-cumFarnworth), Manchester, S W., Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northampton, Northants (Mid), Northants, S., Norwich, Nottingham, E., Oldham, Oxfordshire (Banbury), Oxfordshire (Woodstock), Pembroke District, Radnorshire, Reading, Rochdale, Roxburghshire, Salford, N., Shoreditch (Haggerston), Somerset (Frome), Somerset, N., Southwark (Bermondsey), Stirlingshire, Stockport, Suffolk (Stowmarket), Suffolk (Woodbridge), Sunderland, Swansea Town, Tower Hamlets (Bow and Bromley), Tower Hamlets (Limehouse), Tower Hamlets (St. George's), Walsall, Warwickshire (Rugby), West Ham, N., West Ham, S., Whitehaven, Wilts (Devizes), Wilts (Westbury), Yarmouth (Great), Yorkshire (Doncaster), Yorkshire (Otley).

The Liberal Unionists won twenty-eight seats:

Ayrshire, S., Beds, Biggleswade, Bradford, Central, Bristol, N., Carmarthen District, Cornwall (Camborne), Darlington, Devon (Barnstaple), Durham, S. E., Edinburgh, S., Falkirk Burghs, Gloucester, Hartlepool, luverness Burghs, Lambeth, N., Lancashire (Heywood), Lancashire (N. Lonsdale), Lincoln, Lincolnshire (Spalding), Liverpool Exchange, Manchester, S., Peterborough, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Wilts (Cricklade), Worcestershire, N., Yorkshire (Shipley), Yorkshire, (Skipton).

LIBERAL GAINS.

The Liberals captured twenty seats from the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists. These seats are given below:

From Conservatives.

Bolton, Falmouth, Forfarshire, Huddersfield, Ipswich, Lanark, N.-W., Lancashire (Prestwich), Lincolnshire (Brigg), Linlithgowshire, Londonderry City, Perth, Plymouth, Scarborough, Stockton, Tyroue, N.

From Liberal Unionists.

Dumfriesshire, Grimsby, Norfolk (Mid), Nottingham, W., Staffordshire,

Lichfield.

The Liberal Unionists gave up Berry, Hythe, and North St. Pancras to the Conservatives, who in their turn ceded Wakefield and West Marylebone to their allies.

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