The North Riding election went, after all, for the Tories.
Lord Zetland's and Admiral Chaloner's defection, with the Duke of Cleveland's malevolent neutrality, and Lord de Grey's indifference to the Liberal cause in the absence of Lord Ripon, who so heartily supports it, have proved more potent than we had expected. The majority, however, was very narrow, and in the North the narrowness of the majority, under the unfavour- able circumstances of the contest as regards the Whig mag- nates, is considered as equivalent to a Liberal triumph, though we cannot say we regard it as equivalent to anything of the kind. Mr. Dawnay polled 8,135 votes, against 7,749 given for Mr. Rowlandson, —majority, 386. That is a bare majority in so large a constituency, no doubt, and a very bare one, when it is considered that the Liberal candidate, for the first time, was a tenant-farmer, and was opposed by the most weighty Liberal landlords, instead of supported by them ; still, it is a somewhat larger majority than that gained by Mr. Duncombe over Mr. Milbank in 1868. On that occasion, Mr. Duncombe polled 7,689 votes, against 7,429 given to Mr. Milbank,—majority, 260. It is a disgrace to the North Riding of Yorkshire to .send a Protectionist, and a Protectionist who vacillated discredit- ably in his attitude towards the tenant-farmers on the sub- ject of compensation for improvements, to the House of Com- mons, in their name. We had thought Yorkshiremen cannier and more manly than they have shown themselves.
