THE NEXT ELECTION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
read lately the able review which appeared in your journal upon a letter from " An Old Liberal," in one of the London dailies, and although the letter referred to contains a good deal of valuable information, yet, I think, in some parts of the country at least, the writer is not sanguine enough as to the success of our party at the coming election.
I cannot go into as many instances as " An Old Liberal " with respect to many parts of the kingdom, but as to my own county, Yorkshire, I have unexceptionable means of judging as to the prospects of the Liberal party at the next struggle. Our candidates are, in nearly every instance, judiciously selected and ready, crotchets and disputes are sunk and settled, the registers have been carefully attended to, and I may say with almost absolute certainty that the following seats lost to Liberalism in 1874, either by apathy or disunion, will be regained,—Leeds, Bradford, Pontefract, Scarborough, Sheffield, York, and the North Riding of Yorkshire ; total, seven. Determined attacks, with every probability of success, will be made upon the following Conservative positions, viz :—South-West and South- East Ridings (two each), Wakefield, Thirsk, Knaresborough, and Northallerton ; total, eight. The only safe Conservative' seats in Yorkshire are three in number, viz., two in the East Riding and the minority seat at Leeds,—and even the latter might be won, by skilful organisation and implicit obedience ; it is, there-
fore, on the cards that Yorkshire, represented in the present Parliament by twenty-one Liberals and seventeen Conservatives, will in the next alter this proportion to thirty-five Liberals and three Conservatives. You will thus see that, as far as York- shire is concerned, Jingoism will receive a crushing defeat ; and if other counties would organise, unite, and work as hard, I am con- fident that similar results might be obtained all over the kingdom. By all means let such miserable examples as those of the present representation of Northampton, Nottingham, Wigan, Stoke, and other Liberal strongholds be put an end to ; let personal ambi- tion and philanthropic crotchet be stifled at this time, in favour of self-denial and true patriotism, and I venture to say that the verdict of this great nation in favour of Liberalism at the coming election will be more surprising and emphatic than the unlooked- for reverse of 1874.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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