The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-19 00:00:00

ELECTION HUMOURS.

The forthcoming elections promise to exhibit as
many forms of eccentricity as those of former days,
when the candidates made the kissing of babies and
the purchase of tom-cats at an outrageous price
parts of their programme. Windsor deserves a
notice for one election vagary. Colonel Richardson
Gardner having heard that Mr. Eykyn's friends had
offered "braggart wagers" upon his success, writes
to Mr. Eykyn to offer a bet of £5OO upon the
the result of the approaching contest. Mr. Eykyri
declines to back himself thus heavily, but it does
not follow that he is not confident. The electors of
]3ridgnorth are especially favoured. Mr. Whitmore,
the Conservative candidate, is reported to have sent
his photograph to every elector in the borough. He
has doubtlesss secured the photographic interest, and
probably that of the ladies also. Mr. Smith, the
Conservative candidate for Westminster, pests the
walls thereof with large placards containing the
names of every member of his committee. These
appear to be read with great interest by the
idle, and an obstruction of the thoroughfares is
the result. If Mr. Bennett could be charged
with obstructing the highway by his curious clocks,
why not Mr. Smith for causing the same through his
heavy literature ? Perhaps Mr. Young, the Liberal
candidate for Cambridgeshire, has done the strangest
thing. He charged the Conservative committee with
having published a sham, by advertising as members
of the committee several electors who had promised
to support him. When called upon to name them,
he did so, and they one and all gave the most unquali-
fied denial to his statement.
SHEFFIELD POLITICS.

The names of Roebuck. and -Arundella appear so
frequently in the Sheffield newspapers that the effect
is rather dazzling. There will be no peace for tha
town till after the general election. The meetings
held there are riots, and general politics are merged
in trades-union feeling. The editor of the Sheielti
Daily Telegraph has discovered that forged tickets
are being printed, and thus the roughs get at Mr.
Roebuck. Although that gentleman protests that it
is too bad of the electors to bully an old man, he must
heartily enjoy the fighting so congenial to his spirit.
AN EX-INFIDEL LECTURER.

Among those who have come forward to defend
the Irish Church is tho notorious ex-infidel, Joseph
Barker, who is announced to deliver a lecture on this
subject at Preston this (Tuesday) evening. The
discourseis under the sanction of the Conservative
committee, and the Preston Guardian takes the
opportunity of republishing some " pearls at random
strung " from the writings of Barker. The opinions
are compiled chiefly from his " Reformers' Companion
to the Almanacs," and "The People: their Rights and
Liberties, their Duties and their Interest." Th efollowing
extract will be sufficient to shew the tone in which
he formerly held "the sacred union of Church and
state :"—" Leave the ungodly and plundering Church
to itself, until it be abolished. Let me be buried in
unconsecrated ground, and let no priest come near
me at my burial. Away with the hypocrites. The
world has been pestered with them too long. I
would have no communion with them either while I
live or when I die." It must be confessed that
rzQrker the believer is not so bad as Bail Ar the,
infidel.