Widnes Examiner. — 1887-08-13 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

OUR LONDON LETTER.  LONDON. THDDADAY.  Had the victory at Northwich stood by itself it would have been a startling event. But following as it does an almost unbroken series of Liberal victories it is, as Mr. Gladstone says in his letter to Mr. Brunner, "an addition to evidence now somewhat rapidly approaching to a demonstrative character" that the people of England have determined to do full justice to the people of Ireland. In the desperate depression of the earliest moments following the announcement of the figures, the "Times" made a miserable effort to pooh-pooh the result, and represented it as "much more the victory of a candidate than a cause." On further reflection, however, the hopelessness of thus burying their heads in a sand heap has come home to the belated combatants, and the unmistakeable character of the result ts admitted. It would be impossible to cite in any previous epochs a parallel state of affairs. In the closing months of Lord Beaconsfield's Government, Tory successes in the bye-elections in Southwark and Liverpool entrapped the Conservative party into a dissolution. But these were almost identical cases, where large borough populations were appealed to. In the byeelections which have taken place this year, and which have with one exception either wrested a seat from the Conservatives or materially reduced their majority, we have every class of the national body of electors represented. In Nortlrwich,Spalding, and Basingstoke, we have composite constituencies where the agricultural and the town vote are , mixed. In, North Paddington and Brixton, where the Conservative majority was reduced fifty per cent, we have ~two sections of the metropolitan constituency. In Burnley and Coventry, where seats were won from the Mimsterialists, and in Glasgow where the Liberal majority was nearly doubled, we have the borough vote pure and simple. Thus it is not Liberalism triumphant in boroughs and defeated in counties, nor is it that the agricultural vote is neutralised by that of the working man in town. The series of Liberal advances, culminating in the crowning victory of Northwich, show that in all classes of votes and in all types of constituency the tide has turned, and is now flowing fast In favour of the Liberal party. The effect of the Northwich election upon both political parties is striking. The Ministerialists are plunged in the depths of apathetic despair' whilst Liberals are full of hope and confidence for the future. The next fight will be in Huntingdonshire, and though it is regarded in the Liberal camp as too much to hope to carry this Tory stronghold, it is determined to make a stout fight, and it is expected that the Conservative majority will be materially reduced. Meanwhile everyone is agreed .that the Government cannot any longer carry on as it is at present constructed. There are pitiful cries for Lord Hartington to go to its assistance, and confident statements are put forth pointing to a reconstruction of the ministry which is to-take place in November, and will amount practically to extinction of Tory supremacy, with a compositeparty, which, after all, is much more largely composed of Conservatives than of Dissentient Liberals. In Assuming the speculation to be true, I think that certain important considerations are entirely lost sight of, The Conservatives may, truly, desire to have the assistance of Lord Hartington in their councils, but what they want still more is votes, and -what is the use of surrendering a considerable proportion of the loaves and fishes to Lord Hartington, Mr. Chamberlain, and Sir Henry James if they cannot bring over with them an appreciable contribution of support among the electors? The Government is of course safe as long as the present Parliament exists. But that cannot be long in face of the state of public feeling disclosed by recent elections. There must be a General Election, when, unless matters mightily change, the Dissentient Liberals will be absolutely extinguished. On the other hand, what are Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain to gain by allying themselves with a doomed party? They have gone a long way towards making their severance from the Liberal party complete and irrevocable. But they have not yet burned their boats. It is not safe to ,predict what man may do in moments of desperation. But I think it will be well, for the present at least, to receive with caution these confident and circumstantial assertions of pending coalitions. If any step in that direction is made, it will, I fancy, be confined to Lord Hartington.s finally drifting into the Tory harbour. Mr. Chamberlain, even when he most plainly loses his temper, is too astute a man thus to commit political suicide. The public occasionally hears something of the gentleman who signs himself W. Leathern Bright, and is commonly known in the House of Commons as " Willie " Bright. But the eldest son of the once great Liberal Tribune (Mr. J. A. Bright) has hitherto kept apart from politics. He has now, perhaps involuntarily, made himself known, and in not very happyrOircumstances. Be has, it appears, been attempting to rally the Dissentient Liberals in Rochdale, and is bound to admit that though he has piped they will not dance, though he has called they will not come. Mr. J. A. Bright insists that there are such phenomenon as Dissentient Liberals in Rochdale, besides his father and himself, but frankly admits that as they won't reply he is "discouraged from taking any further steps in the matter," whatever the matter may have been; this adhesion of his eldest son to the new kind of Toryism called Unionism must compensate Mr. Bright for the falling away of his younger son, the member for Stoke. In spite of the alternative of incurring his father's resentment, which I believe is pretty openly expressed, " Willie " Bright has stood steadfastly by the Liberal flag, and has by his vote frequently counterbalanced that of his father, given in these latter days against those generous Liberal principles of which lie was once not the least illustrious and successful exponent. In the "World" this week is an article on "Relics," meaning men who not only survive their contemporaries, but are in some sort representatives of their systems, their ways, and their thoughts. Going through the various professions, it is remarked as perhaps worth notice." that the House