ROSSENDALE ELECTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 22, 18 March 1892, Page 13

ROSSENDALE ELECTION.

(From the National Press.)

The decisive Home Rule victory in Rossendale has proved a deßperately hard nut for the coercionist leader writers to crack, and more chan one of them, after turning it over and over in a column of print, gives the job up in evident despair, leaving his readers to form their own conclusions. It was expee'ed that the Times would deny that Home Rule had anything to do with the election, and the aider and abetter of Pigott haa done Bi\ "Mr Maden had to throw over Home Rule altogether," pays the Times, but the tnunderer is given trie Jie by its own satellites, ffce Standard admits that ' Rissendale must be added to the libt of Liberal constituencies who, having for one reason or another, refus'd to approve of the Home Rule measure ii 1886, have now decided to ui\e its author another chance of trying what he can do in the B*nv; direction. The Morning 7W says " The Irish question was more to the fore t \ an in aoy byt-eltotions." The Morning Advertiser declares lhat " the battle which Mr Maden has fought for Home Kule is rem \rka>de. '' Here we nave the three extreme Tory leading morning papers candidly eonfefsing their defeat on the questun of Home Kale. This is a more complete confutation of the brazen falsehool of the '1 imes than anything that could be quoted from the columns of its contemporary opponents. Even the Daily Chronicle, a Liberal org.n for a long time tainted with coercionist association and idi>us, is forced to admit that this is " a victory waich indicates ta=t the Lib ral Unionists as a party in Lancashire are not l'kely to iive Ion?." The provincial coercionist Press is equally dumbfounded by the blow that the Government has received. The Manchester Examine-, the pet organ cf Lord Hartington, and the pillar of cjercionist Liuer^hsm in Lancashire, views the result with a dismay that ib an admission of a sense of its own impending extinction. "It is inexplicable" it says, and it chronicles Rossendale's verdict " with exceeding gnat regret," and then proceeds to discuss it in a maudlin vein aa " as much of a mystery as the genesis and spread of influenz-i, or presence of evil in a good governed world." The Lirmingham Post the organ of Mr Chamberlain, is constrained to say that " there is no possibility of explaining away the figures of Saturd-iy's poll, or of accounting for them, except on one condition, namely — a growing feeling in the constituency in favour of Mr Gladstone personally, and also in favour of bis Irish policy." Its Tory contemporary, the Birmingham Gazette, caps the admission of deft at by bluntly telling the Post that "Wedo n t believe that Liberal Unionism is strong enough to stand alone anywhere outside the immediate sphere cf Birmingham's influence." This is tho truth, and if it is justified by events we shall see at the next general elec ion not 75 coerciunist Liberals returned, as there were in ISB6, but IG. This means virtual extinction of the faction. That thete outcasts of the Liberal party will not receive any msrey at the general e'ection at tho hands of their Tory allies is clear from the observations of suc'i prints as the Liverpool Courier, which, in its anger at the dtLat of the Government, turns upon and rends the coerciomst Liberal candidate. " The Conservatives have been shaping their course to conciliate the Unionists among the Liberals," it says, " and what is thuT reward ? They have gained nothing in the constituencies, because Liberal-Unionism is not a popular force, but by this action they hive dime an infinite amount of harm to their own party iuteiests." " Therefore," argues the Courier in effect, " let us throw over the Liberal-Unionists." Poor Liberal Unionists.

The following figures are useful for those who are talking about the Bosseodale election :— Total poll in 1892, 10,907 ; do in 1885, 10.288 ; increase in 1892 619. Total poll in 1892, 10,907; do in 1886, 9,348 ; increase in 1892! 1,659. Liberal poll in 1892, 6,066 ; do in 1885, 6.0R0 ; increase in 1892, 6. Liberal poll in 1892, 6,066 ; do in 1886, 3,949 ; increase in 1892 ! 2,117. Tory poll in 1892, 4.841 ; do in 1885 4,228 ; increase in 1892, 613. Tory poll in 1886, 5,399 ; do in 1892, 4,841 ; decrea-.e in 1892^ 558, Liberal majority in 1885, 1450; Tory majority in 1886, 1,832. Difference in balance (added), 3,282. Tory majority In 1886, 1,450 ; Liberal majority in 1892, 1 225. DiffVrence in balance (added), 2,675. This difference is made up of a Liberal gain of 2,117 and a Tory lobb of 558—2,675 as compared with 1886. This is the extent of the victory. As compared with 1885, before the split in the Liberal Party, there is aa increase in the poll of 619— the Tories being 613 better and the Liberals six better. This is the full measure of the present influence of Lord Hartington's apostasy. But how that influence has been declining, How are the mighty fallen ! In 1886, when his influence was at its height, the Liberal poll fell from 6 060 to 3,949, a loss of 2,111, whilst the Tory poll increased from 4,228 to 5 399, an increase of 1,171— a total difference of 3,282. A remarkable fact in this election is that whereas the total poll has increased and the Liberal poll has increased, the Tory poll has decreased. Thus the last crumb of comfort'for the Tories is taken away. In previous bye-elections both parties usually had an increase, the Liberals winning because their increase was the greater. On this fact the Tories built their hopes and founded tbeir excuses. What will they do now ? Of course in these calculations we use the word Tory throughout, instead of Unionist or Liberal Unionist. The latter terms are misnomers and the word Tory is best understood.