NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE Londonderry election went favourably for the Liberals. After all Mr. O'Donnell's bluster, and the eager canvass of Mr. Dempsey, the Home-ruler, who retired at the last moment, requesting his adherents to transfer their votes to the Con- servative, Mr. Porter came in by a majority of 647, a majority smaller, no doubt, than that of the General Election, but smaller only by 237 votes, while the total number of votes polled was very much below that of the General Election. The return was, for the Solicitor-General, Mr. Porter, 2,701 votes ; for Sir Samuel Wilson (Conservative), 2,054; for Mr. Dempsey (Home-ruler), 58, giving the Solicitor-General a clear majority of 589 over the combined votes of the other two can- didates. The triumph is the greater, that every lever, fair or unfair, was made use of to injure Mr. Porter. The cry of his Unitarianism was raised against him, and the Standard even went so far as to assert that he had issued a placard, " showing that the Land Commissioners are reducing rents 25 per cent., and he had added,' If you want this reduction to be applied all round, vote for me.' " No such placard was ever issued, as the Standard had to admit, when challenged to produce it. And as for the one they did produce, it was a mere statement of a few decisions actu- ally made by the Sub-Commissioners, and ending with "Do you want a fair rent P Vote for Porter." No more unfair or un- grounded charge was ever made. And the best of it is that Sir S. Wilson, the Conservative, described the Land Act everywhere as an admirable Act, that did not go far enough. His placards, too, bore the appeal, " Vote for Wilson and fair rents," and Sir S. Wilson denied especially that the Act goes far enough in the direction of cancelling existing leases. Sir S. Wilson as a Con- servative quite surpassed Mr. Porter as a Liberal, in his enthusi- asm for the tenants' cause.
