The long list of pending by-elections for Parliament, on which I commented a week ago, has received three addi ti-us since ti one by the elevation of Sir Horace Farquhar to the peerage, another by the lamented death of Sir Henry Havelock Allan at the hands of the Afridis, and the third by the appointment of Mr. Rees Davies, Member for Pembrokeshire, as Attorney-General of the Bahamas. This last appointment apipa ity of the present dispensers of rs to be another instance of the growing
a pronounced "Radical and Home Ruler, public patronage, since Mr. Rees Davies is whose seat is quite safe for his party. The great interest of these by-elections, however, still centres in York City, where Lord Charles Beresford is waging battle against Sir Christopher Furness. Here all the chances are in favour of the Government winning a seat which can ill be spared by the feeble Opposition. In the first place a Conservative got in, at the head of the ill_at the last General Election, though it Frank Lockwood got in for the second seat, there being only one Consol sent. In the second place no candi could possibly have been selected whose personal popularity would have been greater than that of Lord Charles Beresford; and in the third place Sir Christopher Furness, though in other respects a good candidate, is in the bad graces of the trade unionists owing to his connection with the Masters' Federation which is fighting against the Engineers in 'THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL STRUGGLE, which is still in progress—a struggle, by the way, which at last seems drawing toa conclusion—not by mutual concessions and agreements but by the starving out of the men. Contributions ate coming in very slowly. The project of making a levy on all the other trade unions of the country is not meeting with favour; and it seems to be practically certain that the men cannot carry on the struggle much longer. It is a thouseed pities that they did not accept the last concessions of the masters, which paved the way for an honourable retreat.
MR. CHARLES P. VILLIERS, the Father of the House of Commons, and
greatly distinguished for anything beyond the ldest man la the world mho #9 not his age, has just been celebrating his 96th birthday. Though very feeble in body, and bent double, the veteran statesman is in full use of his faculties. I have since quite recently received letters from him in which he has assailed the policy of his quondam political associates with a wealth of energy which would have done no discredit toa man
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.