ENGLISH POLITICAL PARTIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11210, 6 March 1897, Page 4

ENGLISH POLITICAL PARTIES.

lir the news just received of the re# suit of the Halifax by-election, we evidence of a change that is going on in the relations and nomenclature of political parties in England. The successful candidate is described as a Radical, and he takes the place vacated by a Liberal by defeating a. Unionist. At the general election the Liberals returned one member and the Conservatives one, the latter heading the poll. This result was due to a labour candidate diverting many votes from the two candidates who stood in the Liberal interest. Taught by that • experience, the electors have, in the hy-elecfcion, narrowed the contestwith, the result that the Radical candidate has been returned by a • slightly larger majority than that which the Conservative member obtained at the general election. There seems to. be a process in. operation under which the old Liberal Party in England will have to become defunct and be superseded by a Radical one, just as in the Ignited States the old Democrats are gravitating to the Republican ranks, while the advanced Democrats and the Populists are joining hands. It is, . at all events, significant that of the fifteen members - returned at byelections in England dating 1896, six were classified as Radicals, one as a Liberal-Unionist, and four as Conservatives. The remaining four were Irish Radicals, who would, on other than Irish questions, vote with the. Radical Party. If those who committed the folly of organising the labour vote as an independent factor Were to join forces with the Radicals, they would materially aid in returning to power a truly progressive. Government that would deal satisfactorily with popular questions. There are indications —and the result of the Halifax election is one of them—that - the Independent Labour Party is, bending its energies in that: direction. The mere fact of LiberalUnionists, instead of straight out Conservatives, being pitted against. Radicals, is a symptom _of the trend of English public opinion, the analogue of which we had here a few months ago in the desperate efforts of the Conservatives to pose as. “ triie, Liberals.” The casual vacancies in the present House of Commons have been unusually few during the past fifteen months ; but in most cases the - elections have gone against the Conservatives, and this, too, despite the; disorganised state of the Liberal Party. The “ turn of the tide ” has fairly set in, and the current may be expected to gain in strength, and volume as the months and years roll by and the electors realise the full measure of • Conservative stagnation and broken 1 faith.