The action of criminal libel brought by Mr. George Howell
(M.P. for North-East Bethnal Green) against Patrick Kenny for publishing, as an electioneering device, a charge against him of maladministration of a fund raised some years ago for the assistance of workmen in distress, has failed, the jury returning a verdict of " not guilty " without leaving the box. We refer to the trial not for its intrinsic importance, but rather as show- ing that the return of men of no substance to the House of Commons, though an immense advantage in itself to the cause of labour, has its weak side. Such men cannot help being unduly sensitive to charges of the kind brought against Mr. Howell, even though they are brought only in the heat of an elec- tion campaign, and consequently they waste energy in refuting charges which men of more substance would quietly ignore. Our labour candidates ought to be not only men of the most well-proved character, but also a little thick-skinned to false imputations on it.
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