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2. In the Boroughs as a whole they have gained upon 1885. 3. Without Birmingham, they would be practically even. The actual majority against them is 3,493.

The following observations on this result will, I think, be allowed to be relevant and fair:

1. In the first period on the total of twelve elections the party of the Government gained 6,496 votes. In the second period, had they still held the same relative position, they would have gained, on forty-one elections, 22,500 votes. Instead of which the figures only show an improvement of 3,854 votes.

2. The whole of this gain may be said to be due to the election for Birmingham, which showed a change in their favour of no less than 3,833 votes. It is known that in that election, held almost on the morrow of Mr. Bright's funeral, Liberals voted in large numbers for his son Mr. Albert Bright, and other Liberals in large numbers abstained from voting. If Birmingham be not counted, on the rest of the polls since the 1st of July, 1887, and the Coercion Act, the Liberals may fairly be said to be abreast of the polls of 1885. But let the Birmingham election stand without deduction or further comment: and let us proceed in the light of the facts now ascertained to estimate the general situation as it is illustrated by the comparison of 1887-9 with 1885.

3. In 1885 the Tories obtained 249 seats, the Liberals 335, and the Nationalists 86. Were the Liberals at the next election to reach the standard of 1885, the House of Commons would be divided for the purposes of the Irish question, as follows:

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or, exactly twice the commanding majority now available for the triumphant support of the existing Government; and by far larger than any majority known to our history since the Parliament of 1832.

4. This is unquestionably a majority which will bear some deduction. Let us see what deduction it is likely to suffer if we apply to it exactly the same method of computation as has already been taken in comparing the recent polls with 1886. The data before us are as follows. A gain of say 3,850 votes has accrued to the adversary in a period which has embraced fifty-eight elections: and we take fifty-eight as something over one-tenth of 560, the number of elections to be held in Great Britain, without counting Universities, upon a dissolution of Parliament. Their gain on the 560 elections would be something under ten times 3,850, or about 37,300 voters. This majority at the polls, on the same basis of computation as before, would return a

majority in Parliament of about fifty-six. Let us add seven University members, making sixty-three. But this number has to be deducted from the majority of 172 yielded by the polls of 1885: so that there remains a majority of 109 available for furthering Home Rule, and conducting a great Imperial controversy to its issue.

Such are the results of the appeal to 1885: even when aided by the unusual circumstances of the last Birmingham election. Was such an appeal, all things considered, worth making?

To conclude. This comparison of course throws an interesting light upon the electoral weakness of the Dissentient Liberals, who were allied with us in 1885, and with the Tories since that year. In Birmingham, and perhaps in Birmingham alone, they have some real hold upon the population at large. In places like Brighton or West Edinburgh, where the upper classes form a considerable residential element, they form a sensible force at the poll. Their chief numerical strength, however, lies in the service franchise and in the votes of dependents, given not necessarily under coercion, but in trust, and without strong individual conviction. Even with the aid of mansions and acres, of tenants, servants, and workmen, their numerical force is limited; for the facts are before us which show that we have done hardly less since July 1887 against the combined forces of Tories and Dissentients, than we did in 1885 with a Liberal party in which no open and general schism had come about.

What is perhaps most interesting, in a retrospect now reaching over nearly three and a half years, is the evidence it affords of a steady acceleration in the rate at which the Liberal party has been and is regaining the confidence of the constituencies. Its momentum increases with every stage it covers on its journey. In this view it may be best that the Dissolution should not arrive too early. There is already in view force enough and to spare for carrying the next House of Commons; but, the longer it is allowed to continue its growth, the more able it will be to deal also with the House of Lords, or the more likely it will be, let us rather hope, to beget within that House itself the sagacious temper which eschews a hopeless and a disastrous conflict.

W. E. GLADSTONE.

The Editor of THE NINETEENTH CENTURY cannot undertake
to return unaccepted MSS.

INDEX TO VOL. XXVI.

The titles of articles are printed in italics.

A

ABE

BERCROMBY (Sir Ralph) on the
state of Ireland, 10

Ady (Mrs. Henry), Rome in 1889, 584-
601

Aïdé (Hamilton), Noticeable Book:
Craddock's Despot of Broomsedge
Cove,' 994-997

Air, on Change of, 194-207
Alfieri di Sostegno (Marchese), Italy
Drifting, 385-408

Alligator, difference between the croco-
dile and the, 236

America, Roman Catholicism in, 801-
824

America, the critical period in the bis-
tory of, 324-327

Animals, the Comparative Insensibility
of, to Pain, 622-627

Anspach (Margravine of) and Mlle.
Clairon, 72-73

Army, unserviceable condition of the,
533-540

Arnold-Forster (H. O.), Parliamentary

Misrule of our War Services, 523-
544
Artillery in the British army, 533-535
Atherley-Jones (L. A.), The New
Liberalism, 186-193

A Response, see Russell (George
W. E.)
Australia Fifty Years Ago, 754-775
Australia, Western, proposed constitu-
tion for, 908

BAKER (Benjamin),

(Sir John)

see Fowler

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Birrell (Augustine), Noticeable Book:
Courthope's Life of Alexander Pope,'
987-991

Blaze de Bury (Mlle.), The Théatre
Français and its Sociétaires, 72-85
Blennerhassett (Lady), her Frau von
Staël,' noticed, 327-330

6

Blind (Karl), Giordano Bruno and New
Italy, 106-119

Boar, wild, of India, 234-235
Bodley (J. E. C.), Roman Catholicism
in America, 801-824

Books, Noticeable, 324-346, 984-1000
Boulangism in France, 183-184
Brabourne (Lord), Mr. Gladstone's
'Plain Speaking,' 257-272
Bramwell (Sir Frederick), Noticeable
Book: The Scientific Papers of
C. W. Siemens, Kt.,' 333-337
Breakfast-party, a, in Paris, 173-185
Brohan (Suzanne), 82-83

Bruno, Giordano, and New Italy, 106-

119

Buffalo, the Indian, 234

Butcher's Meat, Diseases caught from,
409-422

Beaconsfield with, 70

NAIRNS (Lord), friendship of Lord

Canary Islands as a health resort, 120,
203

CAV

Cavalry without horses, 535-536
Cavour (Count), policy of, 386–394
Champion (H. H.), An Eight-Hour
Law, 509-522

Children, Mental and Physical Training
of, 659-667

Church, the English, under Henry the
Eighth, 882-896

Church, the English, subscription to the
Articles of, 345

Church (Rev. Alfred J.), Criticism as a
Trade: a Reply, 833-839
Clairon (Mlle.), 72-73
Claretie (Jules), 85

Classical literature as a subject in the
University extension scheme, 579-580
Climate as an agent in the cure of
disease, 135

Clough (Arthur Hugh), 344

Collier (Dr. W.), The Comparative In-
sensibility of Animals to Pain, 622–
627

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Collins (J. Churton), The Universities FACTORY and Workshop Act, the,

in Contact with the People, 561-583
Colonies, is it open to the, to secede?
897-911

Contat (Mlle.), 76

Conversation, the Art of, 273-279
Convocation, enlargement of, 506, 831
Cornwallis (Lord), on the state of
Ireland, 9, 263–264

Country Houses, Old, 651-658
Courthope (W. J.), his 'Life of Alex-
ander Pope,' noticed, 997-991
Cox (Harold), The Eight Hours
Question, 21-34

Crackanthorpe (Montague), The New
National Party, 746-753

Craddock (Charles Egbert), his 'Despot
of Broomsedge Cove,' noticed, 994-997
Creighton (Mrs.), The Appeal against
Female Suffrage: a Rejoinder, 347-

354

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Dilke (Mrs. Ashton), The Appeal against

Female Suffrage: a Reply, 97–103
Disease, influence of dust in producing,
197

Diseases caught from Butcher's Meat,
409-422

Dogs, wild, of India, 231

31-32

Fawcett (Mrs.), The Appeal agains
Female Suffrage: a Reply, 86–96
Fayrer (Sir Joseph), The Deadly Wild
Beasts of India, 218-240

The Venomous Snakes of India, 965-
983

Federation League, Imperial, 897–899
Female Suffrage, the Appeal against: 4
Reply, 86-105

Rejoinder, see Creighton (Mrs.)
Signatures to the Protest against,
355-384

Fiske (John), his 'Critical Period of

American History,' noticed, 324-327
Fitzgerald, Judkin, the flogging Sheriff'
18-20

Fitzwilliam (Earl), mission of, to Ire
land, 8

Fog, London, 195-196

Fog, London, in Praise of, 1047–1055
Fowler (Sir John) and Baker (Benja
min), The Forth Bridge, 35-42
Franchises, Parliamentary, Past and
Present, 942-962

Franklin (Benjamin) on English govern-

ment in Ireland, quoted, 7
French, the, in Germany, 294–311
Furnace, the regenerative, 334-335

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Gaskell (Lady Catherine Milnes), Wo-

men of To-day, 776-784

Geffcken (Professor), The French in
Germany, 294-311

Doyle (A. Conan), his 'Micah Clarke,' Gibbons (Cardinal), 810-815, 818-820,

noticed, 330-332

823

GIF

Giffen (Robert), A Problem in Money,

863-881

Giffen's (Mr.) Attack on Bimetallists,
1014-1023

Gladstone (William Ewart), Plain
Speaking on the Irish Union, 1-20
Phoenician Affinities of Ithaca, 280-

293

Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff, 602–
607

The English Church under Henry the
Eighth, 882-896

Noticeable Book: Mrs. Smedes' 'Me-
morials of a Southern Planter,' 984-
986

Electoral Facts of To-day, 1056–1066
Gladstone's (Mr.) Plain Speaking,' 257–

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272
Gordon (the late General), ' Memo' on

Classes in the Soudan (communicated
by Mr. Clifford Lloyd), 861-862
Gordon (Rev. James), his History of
the Rebellion in Ireland,' 12-17
Gospel for the Century, a, Wanted,
208-217

Grattan (Henry), his retirement from
Parliament, 20
Greenwood (Frederick), Wool-gather-
ings, 312-323

Grievances of High Churchmen, the,
508-509

- are they? 825-832

Griffin (Sir Lepel), his charges against
the native States of India, 545-560

ALE (Colonel Lonsdale), Das I.

HGarde-Dragoner Regiment, 431-

434

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VARUN river, opening of the, 170

Harrison (Frederic), A Breakfast-party KAROats, tomb of, at Rome, 595-596

in Paris, 173-185

The New Trades-Unionism, 721-732
Health-seeking in Tenerife and Madeira,

120-135; see also Air, on Change of
Henry the Eighth, the English Church
under, 882-896

Hewlett (Henry G.), Noticeable Book:
Morris's Tale of the House of the
Wolfings,' 337-341

High Churchmen, the Grievances of,
500-508

Reply to, see Grievances
Hill (Frank H.), The Irish Malady and
its Physicians, 1024–1042

Hill (Miss Octavia), A few Words to
Fresh Workers, 452-461

Home Rule and the desertion of
Liberalism by the upper and middle
classes, 186

attitude of the masses towards, 189-
190

Hyæna, the Indian, 229-230

Hyderabad, condition of, 546-560

Kidd (Dr. Joseph), The Last Illness of
Lord Beaconsfield, 65-71
Knight (Professor), Criticism as a Trade,
423-430

a Reply, see Church (Rev. Alfred
J.)

Koch's investigations of the tubercle-
bacillus, 409

LADY Toad, 668-680
Laguna, 121-122

Lama, the Grand, 688-690

Lambert (Sir John), Parliamentary
Franchises, Past and Present, 942–962
Land Problem, Irish, a Résumé of the,
608-621

Land Programme, Notes on the Latest,
1043-1046

Las Palmas, 126, 203–205

Law (E. F. G.), The Awakening of
Persia, 1001-1013

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