The election for Southwark terminated in a defeat for the
Liberals, the Conservative candidate, Mr. Clarke, obtaining 7,683 votes ; the Liberal, Mr. Dunn, 8,830; and the Labour candidate, who obtained, it is said, 500 Home-rule votes, only 799. Even had these 799 votes been given for Mr. Dunn, Mr. Clarke would still have obtained a majority of 54 votes. The result is all the more important, that =unusually large number of voters was polled, nearly 15,312 out of a total of 22,839. The late Member, Mr. Locke, had never obtained anything like so large a vote as Mr. Dunn, to say nothing of the vote polled by Mr. Clarke. The English Catholics, however, who are numerous in the borough, voted chiefly for the Conservative, mainly, we suppose, because denominational education is considered safer in the hands of the Conservatives than in those of the Liberals; and the Licensed Victuallers also combined to aid Mr. Clarke, whose speeches were extremely popular and successful, while Mr. Dunn's oratory was effected chiefly by proxy. The Liberals were not very fortunate in their candidate, but there is no use in denying that if the Conservative policy had been as unpopular as it ought to have been, our defeat must have been impossible. Southwark, at least, has not "found out" Lord Beaconsfield.
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