Evening Post

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 13, 17 January 1910, Page 6

Evening Post

MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1910. THE BRITISH GENERAL ELECTION. o The result of the first seventy-six polls in the British General Election has an engaging air of symmetry. Thirty-two Liberals have been returned, thirty-two Unionists, six Labour men, and six Nationalists. But it is hardly necessary to say that this singular equilibrium between Liberals and Unionists and between Labourites and Nationalists proves absolutely nothing. The true test is supplied by a comparison between the results of the polling on Saturday last and those of four years ago. The Nationalists remain as they were, nor is there the slightest chance of any material change in their strength, one way or the other, as the eloctions proceed. The Unionists have increased from 26 to 32; the Liberals have declined from 39 to 32; and Labour has advanced from 5 to 6. The gross Unionist gain is nine seats, but they have lost three to the Liberals, which reduces their net gain to six. The Liberals have also suffered a nominal loss of one seat to Labour, but the nominal loss will probably- work out as a substantial gain, since the change has resulted without heartburning as the result of peaceful negotiation. Labour and Liberalism were reported some weeks ago to have come to an understanding, despite Mr. Keir Hardies protests, and the fact that the Liberals did not put up a candidate for Manchester East, where Mr. Hovridge at the last election won for them his striking victory over Mr. Balfour, is a remarkable proof of the thoroughness and "the practical value of the compact. The Labour | candidate whom the Liberals decided to support has secured a majority of 1119 votes, which, though 850 less than Mr. Horridge obtained, compares favourably with the results in the other divisions of the citadel of Free Trade. At the "khnki" election pf 1900. Mr, BsJfnur bvtri * laud of 2463, and in ika wnt&ats,

•of the previous fifteen years he had always been able to -rely on a comfortable majority. It is a remarkable sign of the times that this should have been won by the Liberals in 1906 with a majority of nearly 2000, and by a LabourLiberal combination now with more than 1000. In addition to winning nine seats the Unionists have succeeded in reducing the Liberal majorities in the bulk of tho constituencies which polled on Saturday, their gains in the Metropolis being particularly heavy. But the gains are not uniform, and do not represent anything like a stlmpede. The prospect of the Unionists returning to- power •with anything like the majority which they secured in 1900 was freely discussed during the Liberal debacle which appeared to have begun at the by-elec-tions two years ago ; but the verdict of the urban voters so far gives no encouragement to the theory. The two most striking of the Unionist victories on Saturday were won in the London constituencies of Brixton and Fnlham, but each of these is a district which' had been continuously Unionist from 1885 until the last general election. In Fulham the Unionists have done nearly as well as in 1900; in Brixton their majority is little more than half what it was in 1895, the result in 1900 affording no basis of comparison owing to the absence of a contests The -most remarkable of the three Liberal victories was at Manchester North-west, Mr. Joynson Hicks's defeat of Mr. Winston Churchill at the by-election for this constituency in April, 1908, was a fair retort on the Liberals for the "snowing under" of Mr. Balfour in Manchester East at the general election. Biit Mr. Churchill's victor has in turn had to bite the dust, his majority of 529 being now converted into a minority of 783. The North-Western, like the Eastern and the North-Eastern Divisions of Manchester, was consistently Conservative until the general election of 1906, but all three are held' by Liberalism and Labour now. In the forecast published by The Times last week the Unionist gains were estimated at 134, and the Liberals at 3, while 88 seats were put down as X doubtful. It is singular that the Liberals have secured three gains in the first day's polling, but the figures as a whole do not suggest that they can maintain this average, and the news of several more Unionist gains which comes to hand as we write shows the fallacy of basing any definite conclusion on partial results.