The Stroud election resulted in the return of the Liberal
can- didate, Mr. Marling, a local magnate, who represented West Gloucestershire in the Parliament of 1868-73, but did not come forward at the general election of last year. He obtained 2,783 votes against 2,577 given for the Conservative candidate, Lord Bury. At the general election of last year, Mr. Stanton, the highest Liberal candidate, polled 2,798 votes, while the highest Conserva- tive,-Mr. Dorington, polled 2,763. Either therefore the Con- servative strength is not adequately represented by Lord Bury's
poll, or else it has considerably fallen off, while the Liberal strength is within fifteen votes of what it then was. We suspect the first to be the true explanation. The Conservative who had no local claims could not command anything like the support of the Conservative who, like Mr. Dorington, had local claims. We fear that house- hold suffrage will show itself to be more and more favourable to local magnates,—that we shall have fewer notable men in Parlia- ment at every election.
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