New-York tribune., 1910-11-27
THE BRITISH PARIIES-

II will he Of interest. in case the
promise of dissolution of Parliament Is
fulfilled TO recall the standing OF par
ties in the present House OF Commons
as determined by the general election
of January last. There were then
elected 273 Unionists, 275 Liberals of
/ all shades. 40 LabOrites. Il National
/ isis. followers of Mr. Redmond, and II
Independent Nationalists, followers Of
Mr. O'Bren. There have been twenty
one by-elections since that time, which
have resulted however, in no change
Of party representation. OF the total
Of 610 members then. 335 were needed
for a bare ajority. the Speaker being
counted out Of divisions and remaining
neutral The Unionists fell So short of
4 maiority. and the Liberals 81 short
Of il. There were no possible allies for
the Unionists, so they were doomed TO
be the minority. All other factions
were ready TO ally themselves with the
Liberals. for a consideration, but the
Nationalists alone had enough votes to
give the alliance d majority. There
fore the saving was uttered and gained
some credence that the Liberals and
Natioualists had entered into q COM
pact whereby the former were to be
enabled to mend or end" the Lords
and the latter were to get Home Rule.
The election OF last January was not
fought on exactly the same issues
which are now at the fore, and the
division Of the electors over the new
issues may be quite different in De
cember from what it was in January.
Ir is. however. significant that while
these new issues have been much de-
bated during the year and have evil
IDENTIFY been steadily coming forward
for pr-edominance in the next election
the by-elec1i0nS. as stated. have shown
no change in a single seat. That fact
i quite unique in parliamentary his
tclv. AT least since the second Reform
bill. The five preceding Liberal Pariia
meniS and the four Conservative or
-ni0niSr PariiamentS since 1868 in
variably showed changes. and invari
ably those changes showed net losses
for the party in power The greatest
losses in by-eIections in all those years
were suffered by the Liberal govern
ment Of 1S6S-'74 which had total loss
# 80 and net loss of 24. Even the
short-lived Liberal administration of
lSS5-'S6. only half the length of the
Parliament which is now presumably
closing suffered two losses and no
gains That the present Liberal gov
crnment should within less than year
pass through twenty-one by-elections
without single loss is certainly ey-
traordinary and mayor may nOt-in
dfcate a notable solidarity and fixed
ness Of the Liberal vote. portending
practical repetition Of last January's
result
The present crisis is unique. at least
IT, modern times, in its involving a gen
cral election in December Never be-
fore. since the first Reform bill at any
rate. has an election been held I'm that
month OF the seventeen dissolutions
ir that time, before the present. three
occurred in January. two in March one
IN April. three in June, four in July.
one in September, two in November.
but 50 early i'm the month that the cleo
tionS. or most of them. were ended be-
fore December and one in December.
huf 80 lafe that the elections did not
occur until the following January
What political effect will result from
the holding of elections at this time re-
nains 10 be seen. but there seems to be
little reason for estimating it as for
midably as some have done The prin-
cipal data for speculation are that at
the last election the Liberals suffered a
net loss IF 105 and that in the twenty
one succeeding by-clections they SUI
fered 10 loss and made no gain. From