The Northern Guardian. — 1896-06-02 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

TUESDAY. JUNE 2, 1896.  ELECTIONEERING UP TO DATE.  IT is bad policy to try a fall with Mr Chamberlain, for anyone sufficiently venturesome to do so is almost certain to get the worst of it. Such a fate has befallen the friends of Mr Barlow, the Radical candidate for the Frome division of Somersetshire, in which a by-election is proceeding to-day. Almost on the eve of the poll some anonymous and too enthusiastic supporter of the Radical cause has sought to prop it up by concocting and issuing a circular, which it is only fair to say the Radical candidate himself has promptly and sensibly repudiated. But the precious epistle is undoubtedly valuable as showing the lengths to which Party spite will carry some men, and the depths into which it will plunge them. The author of the circular rashly committed himself to the declaration that "in South Africa we were nearly plunged into war by the action of Mr Chamberlain, who has given everyone the impression that England sympathises with the Chartered Company, and now the delay of Mr Chamberlain in asking for mitigation of sentences on the Reform prisoners has resulted in the suicide of Mr Grey." Of course, this was communicated to Mr Chamberlain, whose reply is a model of brevity and incisiveness. The Secretary for the Colonies simply wired that "no one but a knave would make such a statement, and no one but an idiot would believe it." Probably by this time this violent Radical of Frome wishes he had left Mr Chamberlain alone, and it is very certain that he will have had a bad quarter of an hour with those of his own friends who are able to recognise the disastrous effects which the circulation of the statesman's reply must have upon the prospects of their candidate. At the General Election last year there was a majority of 383 against Mr Barlow, and the probability is that on the present occasion he will be still further behind. Tactics such as these inevitably recoil upon those who resort to them, and every fair-minded man who remembers the splendid service which Mr Chamberlain has rendered to his country during the whole course of the Transvaal troubles may well hope Ithat the electors of Froffle will not fail to mete out suitable punishment to the men who employ poisoned arrows in political warfare. Another interesting contest which is proceeding to-day is in the far North of !Scotland, where Mr W. C. Smith (Unionist) and Mr T. C. Hedderwick (Radical) are contending for the representation of the Wick Burghs, in succession to Sir John Pender, who has retired from Parliamentary life. As the Unionist majority at the General Election was only 24, the issue would appear to be a very open one. Mr Hedderwick is well-known in the County of Durham as a barrister practising on the North-Eastern Circuit, and his legal acumen and training are exhibited in the method of prosecuting his candidature. Remembering that it is a Scotch constituency he is fighting, and one in which there is hardly likely to be any burning enthusiasm for the cause of Ireland, Mr Hedderwick has quietly dropped the Home Rule article of faith, and has even gone the length of bidding for the support of Liberal Unionists on the ground that the vexed question which divided the Liberal Party ten years ago is now out of the way. This is about the lowest depth of insincerity that the Caucus has yet sounded. What must the Nationalist allies of the Gladstonians think now .of the ardent professions of unfaltering and undeviating devotion in which the latter were wont to indulge? But the alliance was never a real "union of hearts" ; it was at the best but a mere makeshift of expediency. Founded upon no solid basis of principle, the elaborate structure reared by Mr Gladstone was bound to fall to pieces wirier or later, and it is falling even more quickly than might have bees expected.