It is the defection of the county constituencies which has
given Mr. Gladstone the victory. Indeed, in England yester- day morning the Unionists had only wrung a single county con- stituency from the Gladstonians which they did not possess before,—namely, the Hexham Division of Northumberland, which the Conservatives carried by the very narrow majority -of 82 (4,092 against 4,010), though in 1886 the Gladstonians carried it by the substantial majority of 957. (We believe that we have since won a seat in North Dorset ; but the complete return is still wanting, and we do not count it in our summary.) Everywhere else we have at beat only largely increased our former majorities, while in very many places our majorities have been greatly reduced. The Gladstonians have, on the other hand, wrung from the Unionists no less than 30 county divisions in England and Wales alone, and these scattered all over the King- dom, 1 in Wales, 1 in Cambridgeshire, 1 in Cumberland, 1 in
Derbyshire, 2 in Devonshire, 3 in Durham, 1 in Essex, 1 in Glou- cestershire, no less than 5 in Lancashire, 1 in Leicestershire, 1 in Lincolnshire, 2 in Norfolk, 1 in Northamptonshire, 1 in Oxfordshire, 2 in Somersetshire, 1 in Suffolk, 2 in Wilts, and 3 in Yorkshire. This is a net gain of 29 for the Gladstonians. No one ever thought that in the counties alone they would gain so much on the very large number which they held already. In the English boroughs, on the other hand, the Unionists have gained 12 from the Gladstonians, against a loss of 35, a net loss of 23. Only in Ireland, where there was very little to lose, have we gained ground,- 5 seats with no loss,—while even in Scotland we have lost 7 (if Greenock is lost) and gained lost 3 on the balance. Still, in the great cities we have increased our own majorities, sometimes very largely, even where those majorities were already very large. It is a record of disaster for the Unionists, but not of such disaster as Mr. Gladstone had counted fondly upon inflicting. The result is a majority for the Gladstonian s large enough to force them to fight, but not large enough to give them much hope of final victory.
