Perhaps a more remarkable conflict never before occurred in this country; certainly not in this neighbourhood. The completeness and suddenness of the Liberal victory seemed to have struck the town with silence. The triumph was too thorough on the one hand to need trumpeting, and the defeat so severe on the other as to come like a thunder-bolt. The borough was strikingly quiet and sober, and no disposition appeared on the part of the victors to indulge in any noisy demonstration, except in the case of the riff-raff before the hustings, whose low clamour is generally a disgrace to humanity. We will endeavour to state as clearly as possible the reasons for this contest and the causes of victory. It is known that a large section of both parties were opposed to a contest. Many of the Liberals objected to it from an idea that the disturbance of the borough would be a fruitless one. The supposed equality of parties and the undoubted personal respect in which the late Conservative member was held by all parties led to this conviction. We cherished pretty strongly ourselves. We opposed a breach of the peace to the very last, sincerely believing, with many others, that a contest would be ill-advised and useless. We reckoned from data which deceived us, and the result has shewn the mistaken calculation of ourselves and of half the older electors. The course taken by the large numbers on the list – upwards of 400 – was the chief means of throwing us out in our reckoning. Most of these have proved to be Liberals, and were exceedingly impatient to exercise their untried franchise. The objectors to a strife had influence enough at first to stave off a battle. The gentleman who was originally waited on for nomination declined to stand through this division of opinion amongst the Liberals. The Conservatives evidently relied on a quiet election; hence their want of organisation when the battle came. Most of the objecting Liberals who had threatened to plump for Mr. North to deter their warmer friends from a contest gave in at last when objecting was hopeless. When Lord Harry Vane (as much to the surprise of Mr. North’s committee as to the Conservatives) was announced as a candidate on Friday morning, a hasty consultation was held. With some of the moderate Liberals there was a keen mental conflict between their personal regard for Mr. Robertson and their political convictions. In most cases political integrity won the day, and the men went for North and Vane. It was too much after all for human nature now the fight was come, to stand by and see one’s party jeopardised; and it was due to their convictions as honest men that Liberals should vote on national, and not -
