It is impossible to deny that the Government have received a very severe blow from the London electors ut the County polling booths. Cubinet Ministers themselves insisted on making ita party fight. The Marquis of Salisbury opened the earn: paign last autumn when he foreshadowed the London Municipalities Bill in a speech in which he described the London County Council as suffering from megalomania, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Balfour, and. Mr. Ritchie have all thrown themselves heart and soul into the fight. And the result is that the "Muderate and Unionist" party are left in a minority of at least twenty, and perhaps twenty-two, among the elected councillors. It is an absolute triumph for the "Progressives," and it is difficult to see how the result can be regarded otherwise than as a distinct condemnation of the measure which the Government propose to introduce for dividing London up into score or so of separate municipalities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.