THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.
Mn. COPPOCK. Town-Clerk of Stockport, has favoured us with the following letter of information and censorship.
TO 'FILE EDITOR Or TIIE SPECTATOR.
Stockport, Ilth Novembor
Sin—In your return of the result of the Municipal election on the lot in- steer. at Stockport, 1 finti the numbers v,.ry erroneously stated. The return. Av: S It ;formers and ti Tories. The present balance of 'parties in the Council is a Tories and 47 Reformers.
I hope y011 have stated the results of other elections on better information than you appear to have done in the case of Stockport, as otherwise very little depende»ce can be placed on the accuracy of your returns.
I have the honour to be, your most obedient servant,
HENRY COPPOCE, Town-Clerk of Stockport. Mr. Town-Clerk COPPOCK says we published wrbug numbers of the members elected to the Town-Council : now we gore no num- bers, bat merely a list of places, where one party or the other clahned to have pined an advantage. It appears, therefore, that this official gentleman has been nattier officious, and his sneer at our sources of' information misapplied. Now as to those sources. Of course we, writing in London,. can have no personal knowledge of events happening stmultaneousky. . in the provincial towns. Necessarily, therefore, our intelligence on such occasions is second-hand. It. is partially derived from pri- vate correspondence, but generally front the newspapers. It hap-. - pens that in several provincial journals—of different politics—the Stockport returns are given as 8 to the Conservatives and 6 to the Liberals. Mr. COPPOCK says these numbers should be reversed. Very well—the error was not ours, nor adopted in this journal: it is not our business to trace it to its origin; but since Mr. COPPOCK is so very sensitive on the subject, we advise him to serabout the inquiry. and send a copy of his letter to the author of the mistake, when discovered.
Stockport, however, is placed in our list of towns where the Conservatives are said to have " succeeded ;" and there, pace Mr. COPPOCK, it shall stay, until lie can show that there are not. more Tories in the Town-Council now than before the last election. Time same list which stated that 8 Conservatives and 6 Liberals were returned, also mentioned that 14 Liberals went out of the Council ; and as Mr. CorrocK has not complained of any error in the number of the outgoing Councillors, we pre me there is none : then it iidlows that the Tories have gained 6 votes, and pro tanto " succeeded."
There is considerable difficulty in making out correct returns of the results of municipal elections. Different tests of success and defeat are adopted by different parties. Thus, at Stockport, the Tories will say—" Our cause has triumphed. for have we not six more members in the Council this year than the last ? "—while the Liberals will point to the election of 8 out of 14, and proclaim a victory also. Again, there is doubt as to the politics of the per- sons. chosen. Sometimes the names of the elected with their poli- ties are given, but the politics of the outgoers are not specified; and thee it is difficult to guess which party has bettered its posi- tion. Frequently the names alone, without any guide to politics, are put down; for it is presumed that you mest know that Mr. Robert Jones is a Tory and Mr. Samuel Smith a Whig. In trail- scribiw, and printing figures, also, mistakes often occur; which they who have had the largest experience, and who take the greatest pains themselves, are the readiest to excuse.
The sources of' error being so numerous. and the time and means of correction so inadequate, we have avoided details as much as possible ; and we should not even give an opinion on the general result of the Municipal elections were there any thing near a balance of gains and losses : but the advantage—the galaing. ground—seems to be too decidedly whim the Tories to 'admit of dis- pute.
This was to be expected : except in towns where strong we ought, if he has injured us, to seek redress in the first feelings exist on local questions, the Tories must gain, from the stance ? The last of these questions—in other words, is apathy generally prevailing in the Liberal body, and their influence
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