But the Government, amid all their troubles, have had another little triuniph at a by-election' to console. them. it. Doughty who, having-abjured Home Rule, accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, and offered himself for re-election by his constituents at Grimsby as a Liberal Unionist, has "been returned to, Parliament. with a huge majority, in spite of the fact that: he was hampered by the action of.an "Independent Conservative " candidate whom no appeals of the party leaders could induce to retire. Mr. Doughty declared that although he-would if returned' give a general support to the Unionist Government, he nevertheless remained a Radical on every other question except Home Rule and it is therefore claimed: by. the Unionists that the-election was.a-referendum on the Home Rule. question; Home. Rule. has long been dead, many of them-declare, and the Grimsby election was its burial. But this is too singing a view to take. Indeed there -are many: worthy inhabitants of Grimsby who are convinced that. the election.has.no_ political—significance whatever. Mr. Doughty is the. largest employer of Inbour. in the port, he is personally -very. popular, and the" voters generally admired his pluck in recanting and resigning his seat. Ifa further proof were needed ofthe unreliability of by-elections as a guide to the' political feeling of the country it' may be' found in the Launceston Division of Cornwall, where the Home Rule candidate hus been returned with a largely increased majority.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.