The Solicitor General, Mr. Jesse!, got in for Dover, and
got in by an increased majority as compared with the last election ; but for all that, the figures are not encouraging. They show that. whereas Mr. Jessel polled, in 1868, 1,435 votes, and the highest Conservative candidate 1,387, Mr. Jessel polled on Satur- day last only 1,235 (200 fewer votes than on the last occasion), and Mr. Barnett only 1,144 (243 fewer votes than on the last occa- sion). That is, Mr. Jesse' won because more Conservatives stayed away from the poll than Liberals, in obedience, we suppose, to the example set them by Mr. Clinrchward and Major Dickson, who declined to break through the usual etiquette which permits an uncontested re-election in such cases as Mr. Jesse's. The vic- tory, therefore, is no omen of success at the next general election. Even at Dover the Liberal feeling was not up to the mark, and curiously enough a good many more Conservative votes seem to have been polled between 12 and 1 (the working- men's hour) than Liberal votes. Possibly, however, those were discontented Government employes, for there are Government works at Dover.
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