The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-25 00:00:00

LONDON, TVEDNESDAY, NOV. 25, 1868.

Mr. GLADSTONE'S defeat in South-West Lancashire
has been all along anticipated. It is none the less
astounding, however, now that it has come to pass.
And there is hardly a man of generous feelings, we
conceive, throughout the country, no matter what
may be his political opinions, but will regret the indig-
nity thus cast by his native county upon the foremost
Lancashire-man of his time. It takes one's breath
away to think how matters might now have stood, but
for the provident care with which a little while
previously a seat was secured for Mr. GLADSTONE
at Greenwich, in the event (an event yesterday rea-
lized) of his failure as a candidate for the represen-
tation of South-west Lancashire. But for that wise
precautionary measure on the part of his more de-
voted adherents, we should, early in the immediately
ensuing month, have witnessed a proceeding more
ridiculous even than the hypothetical performance
of the tragedy of Hamlet with the character
of HAMLET left out ley particular desire,
or at any rate by particular arrangement. It would
have been a more extraordinary spectacle—that
of the six hundred and fifty-eight new members filing
into the House of Commons in the second week of
December without including among their number the
Leader of the serried ranks of the majority—than the
proverbial procession in Old Rome, from which the
bust of BRUTUS was so very conspicuously
excluded. A casualty of that extraordinary
kind, would have been an anti-climax so monstrously
ridiculous in its way that it would almost have called
down the derision of Europe upon the electors of the
United Kingdom. That at any rate we have been
spared. The country so far, at least, has not utterly
stultified itself—as it would most certainly have done if
while returning au immense majority in favour of Mr.
GLADSTONE, it had denied to Mr. GLADSTONE hi nasel
acceptance by any constituency. From this other-
wise inevitable stultific ition of itself, England has
been spared by the forethought of those provident
friends who so very discreetly brought Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S claims upon their consideration before the
electors of Greenwich. And Greenwich, in responding
as it did to that appeal, has certainly secured to
itself an immense and very notable recompense. It
has, by its selection of Mr. GLADSTONE as
its representative, rendered itself upon the
instant illustrious. No one would recognise that fact
more readily or more heartily—we are certain of this
—than Mr. GLADSTONE'S principal rival and antago-
nist in the House, the present First Lord of the Trea-
sury.

No matter what his Parliamentary designa -
tion—whether, as it was but a very few years ago,
the Right Ilon. Gentleman the member for the
University of Oxford, or as it was until but a very
few weeke since, the Right Hon. Gentleman the
'Dauber for South Lancashire, or a 3 it is
now fated to be the right hon. gentleman the member
for Greenwich —Mr. GLADSTONE will be there as the
recognised and authoritative Chief of the great
Liberal Opposition. That Opposition already num-
bers up an immense aggregate of 364 altogether
As many as 611 members having been returned up to'
yesterday's polling-47 additional members alone re-
main now to be enrolled. Supposing—what is to the last
degree unlikely—that every one of those forty-seven
members who have yet to be elected should in
the result prove to be Conservative, the Conser-
vative members already returned to the number
of 247, would, by the acquisition of that forty-
seven to which we are alluding, still remain in a
minority of Seventy. For, the numbers in that
purely imaginary case would stand thus-364
as the (still) aggregate of the Liberals, against 294
as the (then) aggregate of the Conservatives. As
matters now stand, the snpplementary 47 will have
to be portioned out on their return—so many to the
Government side, so many to the side of the Oppo-
sition. But, of the 611 already actually completed
elections, 247 being Conservatives, and 364 Liberals,
the Liberal majority is at the present moment exactly
one hundred and seventeen. Before yesterday's polling
altered so far the relative position of parties numerically,
the Liberal majority was 131. Yesterday, however,
diminished that aggragate advantage to the Opposi-
tion by fourteen—nineteen Liberals having been re-
turned within the day's polling, and thirty-three
Conservatives. The result of yesterday's polling,
therefore, directly justifies what we said in our last
impression as to the probability of the Liberal
majority proving eventually, that is, upon the
return of the whole 658 members of the House
of Commons, a clear majority of, at the outside,
a very little over 100. Fifty-two seats being filled
yesterday, caused, as we have seen, the clear ma-
jority of 131 to shrink by 14, to a clear majority of
117. How many of the odd 17 will have been struck
away from the square 100 within the next two or
three day's polling that will have to take place before
the 47 still vacant seats shall have been filled up,
remains now a problem, the solution of which will
be visible to all within a very brief interval.
However the remaining (less than half a hundred)
elections may go, we are still convinced of this
that -the clear majority of the Liberals will be as
nearly as possible one hundred.

SO3IE Conservative candidates assert that the new
Parliament will be a short-lived one. They give no
reason for their assertion, the only one we can
conjecture being King lIENnY's, "the wish
is father to the thought." There is every
reason why the new Parliament should not be
short-lived. In the first place, the late Parlia-
ment did not last its full average term, and M.P.'s
will therefore wish to prolong the present Parliament
beyond it. In the next place, the Reform question
has been settled, and therefore the main cause for
a speedy dissolution which arose in 1866 does not
exist. Lastly, the Liberal majority is so large that
Mr. GLADSTONE ought to be able to overcome all
opposition without the necessity of appealing to the
country. Even were it otherwise, we do not see how
the prospect of another election should be particu-
larly inspiriting for the Conservatives. They have
just appealed to the country with all the prestige
which always attaches to the party in office, and also
with the additional advantage of being the recognised
authors of the measure bywhich a large number of voters
have been enfranchised. Moreover, the question
before the country has given the Conservatives an
unquestionable advantage in certain constituencies
where, as in Lancashire, the anti-Catholic and anti-
Irish feeling is very strong. If, with the threefold
advantages of possession of office, a claim upon the
gratitude of the new electors, and a strong religious
prejudice in their favour, they have been unable to