Mr. W. H. Hall has explained the somewhat remarkable phenomenon
of his East Cambridgeshire canvass, where, after issuing a really admirable Liberal-Unionist address, he only polled 263 votes, to the great astonishment of his friends, who know his political ability. " It was," he says, " at the express written request of Lord Carmarthen that I persevered to the end and went to the poll. My efforts throughout were devoted to detaching Liberal labourers' votes from Mr. Newnes, whose majority was reduced by 526,—no mean result in a constituency dominated by Nonconformist ministers, in the case of some of whom religion and Radical politics are inseparably connected. Had I appeared on Conservative platforms, my influence would have counted for less than nothing,"—another illustration of the almost unmeaning way in which political names dominate the imagination of English electors, without reference to the causes which stand behind the names.
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