London, April 15.
The Coalition Government is undoubtedly feeling very considerable confidence just at the present moment. After many months during which its decay had been proclaimed by its opponents and during which also its friends had indulged ina great deal~ of unnecessary yeerimation, the two wings of the Government have apparently fee themselves together, both at westminster and in the country. As a result, they have had a great many successes at the by-elections, and the figures are much more satis. factory than might appear possible to an outside observer unconversant with the facts.
In the first place, at Stockport a Liberal and Unionist ran together for the-first time. It was a question whether the two sides of politicians would work together in support of this amalgamation, but there were 21,170 plumpers out of rather more than 22,000 votes, which shows there was complete sul " Labour was badly beaten. loyalty and cooperation. As a re-
Labour won Dartford, it is true, but only owing to rivalries among the Coalitionists themselves. The Asquithians, who had not ventured to contest Stockport, jumped the Liberal nomination at Dartford Ly persuading the Executive not to recommend a Coalition Liberal, but one of the Asquithian variety. He made a pretty poor show, but the Unionists, who had three candidates in the field, also muddled things, and undoubtedly convinced the public that in this case Labour was the only one which stood any chance of success. On another occasion there is no doubt that the seat can be recaptured.
On the other hand, Dr. Macnamara, whose downfall had been prophesied, won easily at Camber-well, while Basingstoke was also held, and Mr. MacCurdy retained Northampton. Even at Edinburgh one of the seats will certainly be retained, and Mr. Runciman's success is by no means certain.
Tur Mora. or rr At.
There are many lessons to learned from these elections. One is that there are-a vast quantity of electors who do not trouble to vote at all. Despite the utmost efforts of the political organizers, only about 50 per cent. went to the poll at Camberwell, and only a little more at Dartford. In the North they vote better. This is partly due to apathy, partly due to the fact that many of the public are so obsessed by the economic struggle that they have no interest in other matters, but mainly in consequence of the undoubted view that, though there are many things to criticize the Coalition Government for, there is no alternative to its existence. Hence the abstentions. But. when people realize that, it is foolish to expect too much from the Govern-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.