TOPICS OF THE DAY.
BALANCING OF THE ELECTION ACCOUNTS.
soles our last publication, several "brethren of the broad sheet " have given complete lists of the Members returned to the MEL- BOURNE House of Commons; and we have had the opportunity of supplying some omissions and correcting some errors in our own. and us first state the alrations made in the Spectator's tables; d then explain whereinte and why the results differ from those of both Whig and Tory calculators.
Last week, the total of the Liberalcolumn was 337 Deduct from this number, for Mr. BROADLEY of East York- shire, and Mr. SHAW of Dublin, placed by mistake among the Liberals
302 Mr. T. G. Column, should not have been in the list, having given way to Mr. CHRISTOPHER, in Lincolnshire; and the Honour- able H. FITZROY should have been inserted for Lewes. Both be- ing Tories, this error makes no difference in the relative numbers.
Our account now stands—
Liberals 336 Tories 322 Lord MELBOURNE'S majority ......... 14 In the tables of Polls,* where the two parties are distinguished by the letters L and T, there was only one error affecting the result; Messrs. BROADLEY, SHAW, HAYTER, WINNINOTON, and LORD VILLIERS, having been rightly placed. Sir WILLIAM FOLLETT was put among the Ls: give him his proper letter T, and then the Ls will be 336 instead of 337, and the Ts 322 instead of 321 ; which numbers correspond with those in the table of Members returned. In the table of Gains and Losses, the gain of FITZPATRICK for VESEY was omitted; and the Irish elections undecided last week have since given the Liberals a gain of one in Cork—RocHE for LONOFIELD, and two in Longford—the two WHITES for Lord FORMES and LEFROY. We have deducted one from the Tory gain for Bridgewater ; as Mr. BROADWOOD, though his vote was in abeyance and the tenure of his seat precarious, was still a Member, and his reelection could not be considered strictly as a gain. On the other hand, Mr. WHITE of Longford had been actually unseated by a Committee, and his reelection is therefore a gain to the Liberals. The Ministerial papers allow no Tory gain at Hastings, on the assumption that Mr. NORTH was a Tory, and that Mr. PLANTA only replaces him : but Mr. NORTH voted for Mr. ABERCROMBY, and seems to have been as good a Whig as Mr. BENETT of Wiltshire, who supported the PEEL Address and opposed the Appropriation-clause. We put Mr. HoLLoNn against Mr. NORTH, and count the substitution of PLANTA fur ELI?HIN- nom as a Tory gain.
The gains and losses now stand thus—
Tory gain 65 Liberal gain 57 Balance in favour of the Tories 2
335
Add for Mr. HATTER of Wells, misplaced among the Tories 1 836
The total of the Tory column was ...... ......... 321 Add for BROADLEY and SHAW, misplaced among the
Liberals Add Lord VILLIERS of Weymouth, omitted 1 324 Deduct for HAYTER of Wells, transferred to the Liberals Deduct for Sir T. WINNINGTON of Bewdley, put in both columns, belonging to the Liberals I
OM=
2