New-York tribune., 1874-03-14


Total Liberal mai. e6,6Ss 6SGI
Tho following table shows the increase and de-
crease Of the votes OF each party IN 1874 compared
with 1SCS and the majorites of tle Liberal party
1865. IS7l Increase. Decrease
and walss......-...... CIrlJ3 So5469 soSS4
od AMY wacs..i $50 O3o 5sis1 2s,4ol
aaad s9S Tas, o,3a sga3 s9a23 Sfsss 2Ss lod;i ''o
CON vot. in Scotland. 42.57. 5l819 s,29s .'-'
Iabcra mai. Iu scotland. p, SSyi LOO dI '''
Liberal vote ia lTcldu To-. 4,.-,O tOl'l lSf"'. '-'
Con. vote iu lrrl tuL.... $50 Sos,o %-''0' ooot
Lib. raj iuaj. iu Ireland. 1916 lO'22 .--. '''a
Political statistics have little interest for En-
elsh readers that no English journal has thougne
II worth while to collect them. The returns. Oh
which summaries are here given have peoh 'aAeh
from the most authentic sources ana are Ill I'LL cscs
official They are accurate so far as they 60 anu "io
as complete as they can be made But Engiisn olec-
tious are by DO means simple affair, and 1t is not
rossibe to construct chart OF them on any system
a. which some exception might not be taken. The
svsten have adopted seems to me on the whole the
f,irost and most satisfactory / have taken in each
contested election the highest Liberal and the nigh
est Conservative vote, and the Liberal and Con-
servatIyc totals are composed respectively OF those
votes.
On the fice of IL this seems not merely fair but
accurate but there qualifications TO ITS accuracy
which should be explained. There are, first, the
tbree-cornerod constituencies, called where the
cumulative vote exists, to enable the MINORITY ny
hoaping three votes on one man. to elect him. III
those cases the highest minority vote ought 10 De
divided by three to arrive at the actual number OF
voters But the number of these constituencies Is
not great enough 10 affect the result secondly,
tbere are constituencies where one party puts up the
IL, flNa 9TH haiI IGXrf nj
itself unable to elect the full number, puts mp one
only 1t happens IN such cases that the second mi
noity vote is very often given TO one OF
the two other candidates. In Marylebone
for instance if Mr. Hughes had remained a candi-
date ne would almost certainly have been elected
with Mr. FORSYTH, the Conservative, and instead OF
Sir Thomas Chambers. The reason is that a great
part of Mr. Forsyths supporters were of the wealthy
classes rot very ardent politicians, but liking to be
represented by gentlemen of a certain position.
Neither Sir Thomas Chambers nor Mr. Daniel Grant
suited them; so they pumped" for Mr.. Forsyth
In other words having two votes, they gave only
one. The other. added to the Liberal support Mr.
Hughes had secured, would have been more than
suficent to give him the seat. In such cases IT Is
obvious that q comparison of votes between Mr. For
syth aud Mr. Hughes would not have indicated the
respective strengths of the two parties. ln Chelsea
their votes between their own candidate Mr. Cor
don. and Sir Charles Dixie. The effect of this was
"a nut Sir Charles Dixie at the head of the poll,
with Mr.. Gordon next; and Sir Henry hoare' tne
second Liberal candidate, was defeated.
Thirdly. there are constituencies where the con-
test was wholly between Liberals or wholly be-
tween Conservatives or where, in large part of
Ireland. party divisions went for nothing and all
ar many of the candidates were Home Rulers. But
the Home Rulers are, with few exceptions lord
Robert Montagu is the only one remember, Lib
erals and have been reckOned such. 1t is hardly
necessary TO refer to the splitting of votes on minor
i,sues, such as Woman Suffrage or Education or
Beer OF any Of the twenty or thirty other tests
which candidates asked to take In all such
cases ii is easy to classify the candidate as Liberal
OF Conservative and though he OF lost votes by
his pied. es or refusals Of pledges the two parties
probably gained and lost in about the same proper
tiOn-the Beer question always excepted, for the
publicans almost TO man supported Tories, even
when, as in Westminster, Liberal candidate was a
great brewer
II il obvious. from such considerations as these
and might add to the number-that to take the re-
turns throughout the three kingdoms, and simply
sum up the total Liberal aud total Conservative
vote. would give most delusiSe result. One Lib
era journal adopted that method of proving that
in the metropolitan bOrOughs spite OF the Conserva-
tive gain of eight members the Liberal majority had
largely increased. In Chelsea he added together Sir
Charles Dilkes and Sir Henry Hoare's votes and
there WAS only Mr.. Gordon's total to put against
them. so that. though the Conservative vote was
only few hundred less than the highest Liberal, 1t
aupeared to be only one-half-and so on. 1 can
think of no method so likely to result in tJ state
ment as the one have adopted The English friends
10 whom have submitted it, though greatly sur
prised at the results agree that the system is the
right one, and the inevitable inaccuracies are likely
20 affect each party to about the same extent
treinains 10 state the great objection TO accept
ing the result obtained as view of the state Of
opinion. The objection is the number of unopposed
returns OF elections, thatis which were unconteste
amd which offer no of arriving NJ the relative
numbers in those constituencies Of Liberals and
Conservatives. In all out of 6j3 members there are
IS7 such returns and Of these l2l are Conservatives
s. Liberals and Home Rulers not distinctly classi
fed but presumably Liberals AT first sight the ma
jority Of Conservatives elected without a contest
might seem TO restore the balance and to indicate that
the number of Conservative votes in these constitu-
ences. added to the total derived from contested
elections might turn their minority in the whole
country into majority. Possibly it might but it is
not certain. Among the unopposed Liberal returns
for instance are the three members for Birmingham
where the Liberals are 70 strong that though the
cumulative vote exists there, the Tories did not at
tempt TO secure member. think the most that
can be said the general question is this that the
actually contested elections show Liberal majority
On the popular vote. aud that on the unanswerable
question whether this majority might not be over
come by the other uncontested constituencies. the
Conservatives entitled to the benefit of doubt
In any case the siQnilcance Of the fanres il Ueru