MEMBERS RETURNED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8930, 14 July 1892, Page 5

MEMBERS RETURNED.

The following are the additional returns :o hand up to going to press :—

ENGLAND. Chesterfield : T. Bayiey (G.L.) Woodstock : G. it. Benson (G.L.) Ejremout : i). AiuswortU (G.L.) Doncaster: Fleming (G.L.) Fareham (E.): General Fitzwygram (C.) Norfolk (S.) : F. Taylor (U.) ' Rye: A. M. Brookfiefd (C.) Derby (N.E.): T. I). Bolton (G.L.) Wellington (Shropshire): A. H. Brown (U.) Newmarket (Cambridgeshire) : G. Newetis (G.L.) Knutsford, Cheshire: Hon. A. dc Tat ton Egerton (C.) Torquay : R. Mullock (C.) Spalding (Lin.): E. G. Finch Hat toil (C.) Ross (Herefordshire): M. Biddulph (U.) Ripen : J. L. Warton (C.) Basingstoke : A. P. Jeffreys (C ) Epsom : Bticknell (C.) Leek : Bail (C.) Northampton : Connor (C.) Stratford on-Avon : Heath (C.) Seveiioaks : Frost (C.) Morley (York) : Hutton (G.L.) Launceston ; Owen (G.L.) Somerset (S.) : Strachney (G.L.)

SCOTLAND. Caithness-shire: Dr. Park (G.L.) Aberdeen (10.) : P. Esslemont (G.L.)

IRELAND. Tyrone (10.): W. J. Reynolds (IST). Kerry : J. D. Sheelian (N.) Birr: B. C. Moltoy (N.) Deny (S.): T. Lea (U.) Down (vS.): Mr. McCarten (N.) Mayo Co. (N.) : 1). C'rilly (N.) WALES. Monmouthshire (S.): F. C. Morgan (C.)

Mr. F. Greenwood, writing to the Melbourne Argus from London on May 27, says : —

It does seem at the moment that the Gladstones are less sanguine than they were a few weeks ago : but a few weeks before that they were not very sanguine either—l mean the official chiefs and those who know their own business best. At that time the managers of the party reported that a larger majority thau 25 or 27 was not to be looked for. Their hopes rose later considerably ; but they have sunk again. Apart from whatever accidental advantages or disadvantages may occur, everything depends on Mr. Gladstone himself so far as that side is concerned He makes astonishingly ingenious strokes, surprisingly mistaken ones; and either may be in store for his followers, and we shall presently see. Another thing that must be aa clear to him now as to the'rest of us it that his friends in Great Britain would readily pardon him, even applaud him, if his Home Rule proposals fell far short of what they were in 18S6; while in Ireland the demand for legislative independence is rapidly dying down. On the Conservative side there is little more knowledge to go by, and much more concern. Here, too, "the whips allow themselves to expect a majority of about 25—a preponderance which neither party would find of much use. But we arc ail in the dark as to the outcome of the voting on our own side, being in total ignorance of what line our leaders will take ; which ought never to be said of the chiefs of any political party. The contest will not be decided in Ireland or on Irish questions. The chances are that neither in Ireland nor in Scotland will the result of the elections make a difference of more than half-a-dozen scats. The fight will be fought in England ; it will be decided on questions affecting property, trade, economic stability ; and therefore what the Conservative voting will must necessarily depend in great measure upon whether rank-and-file Conservatives have anything to vote for. _ -1 he fact that the contest will be decided in England is a large element in the calculation of cli dices ; and it is a fact that tells in

favour of the Ministerialists. At this moment they have a majority in the whole House of 66 or 68. Therefore they must lose 3o or 40 seats to be put in a minority, or a dozen more if the majority against them i* to bo at all effective. But, roughly speaking, they have no seats to lose in Ireland ; fen' or none are likely to be lost in Scotland. It follows that whatever losses they sustain must nearly all be in England. What they have to face is the risk of being beaten in forty or fifty contests in that country alone, which ought not to be a very great risk. Where the Ministerial party is weakest is in its Radical contingent. There are now 63 Liberal Unionists in the House of Commons —the Conservatives numbering 305. (In all 368, against 302 Gladstoniaus and Irish Nationalists.) Now, it is not unlikely that the Liberal Unionists will have to suffer a considerable reduction; for they depend everywhere on Conservative votes more or less, and wherever there are Conservatives who resent being booked to Mr. Chamberlain's chariot, Tory votes are less likely to go for Mr. Chamberlain's man. It is quite conceivable that Mr. Gladstone might come in by a small majority, even though he declared himself resolved to withhold his ' Irish scheme till he was in a Easition to fight it through in Parliament. ut, in that case, he will be compelled to present his Home Rule Bill as soon as he is fairly settled on the Treasury bench. The Irish members would insist on it; the Unionist opposition would back them vigorously and together, those two parties could turn the new Government out at any moment. Compliance there must be ; but, if so, what then ? Immediate production of a measure that must do one of two things— either renew the hubbub of 1886, and justify the Lords in pitching out the Bill, or enrage the Irish representatives, and reverse their votes ; which must mean that out the Gladstonians must go. That is difficulty No. 2, to which may be added difficulty No. 3. For, of course, if Home Rule must be taken up and fought over at once, there could be little chance lor the promised legislation which the British voters do care about; and the labour vote, if cast for Mr. Gladstone, would find itself defrauded.

SIR W. HARCOURT ON PROSPECTS OF THE GENERAL ELECTION. Sir W. Harcourt lately addressed the Liberal secretaries and agents of the Liberal Federation throughout England and Wales. In the course of his speech lie said : —" We have much, I think, to be satisfied with in the position which our party now occupies. We encountered, in 1886, a great defeat. We were told that we were done for (laughter), that we were a vile, a despised, a discredited, a defeated patty. Well, the fact is—this gathering is a witness of it—that we were not done for at all. (Cheers.) It was true that, under the circumstances of the time, we experienced a great disaster, but the spirit, the pluck, the conviction of the Liberal party was unbroken and was undefeated, and all that was required was a little patience, a little courage, and a little perseverance to retrieve the defeats we had experienced. The rank and file of the Liberal party was sound, and it is to that that we must attribute the position in which we find ourselves to day (Cheers.) It is true that there were many deserters— of high position and of great influence in the party. They never shook the convictions, they never shook the loyalty of that party to the principles upon which it was founded aud to the chief to which it was faithful. (Cheers.) If it had been true, what they said of us and our position, the sympathies and the conviction of the nation would have fallen away from us, and as the mouths and years rolled by we should have been found weaker and weaker, and those who were opposed to us would have been stronger in the support of the country. Has that been' the fact ?(Cries of 'No.') Is not exactly the opposite the fact? (Cries of 'Yes.') Is it not true that while they have waned we have waxed in the opinion and in the confidence of the English nation ? We have met them in fair fight. We have met them with the deserters from our camp at their back, and we have beaten them. Many significant contests have taken place. How many seats have they won? (A voice, 'One.') How many seats have we won? We have beaten them by more than twenty to one in the trials which have taken place in the country. Well, that is not so bad for a vile and discredited and despised party. The seceders claim that they are, and always have been, the real Liberal party, (Laughter.) That is the way, I observe, with seceders always. That can only be settled at the polls, and it. has been settled at the polls. The two most significant of those elections have been at South Molton and Rossendale, and the chief of the deserters has had his answer in the constituency which has bean the object of his political education. That is a situation which is not, 1 think, unsatisfactory to us. . . I am here to congratulate you upon your prospects, upon your great leader, who in his honoured ago retains all the force and the genius and more than the influence of his prime. (Cheers.) I congratulate you upon the great cause which is worthy of the party which he leads. I congratulate yon upon the trusted advisers who sit upon my right hand and my left (Mr. Schnadhorst and Mr. Morley), who are your more immediate counsellors in the great contest which awaits von. ' congratulate you on the result of your worthy toil, and on the prospect of an early victory, and I ask you with one accord and with due acclaim to drink the health of Mr. Arnold Morley and Mr. Schnadhorst.