The Ballot is to be next tried in a large
constituency. The death of Sir T. G. Hesketh has made a vacancy in the representa- tion of Preston, a town with 11,300 electors, which has usually returned Conservative candidates. This time, however, the Liberals will fight hard. They have selected Major German, member of a large firm of flax-spinners in the town, as their representative, and as the Tories have no local candidate, but accept Mr. Hater, Q.C., the contest ought to be a very close one. The last election, the only one which has occurred since the constituency was quin- tupled, is, however, no test, the Liberals having been weighted with a candidate who, however respected and deserving of respect, was still a Catholic, and therefore distrusted by large bodies of
electors. His creed brought him the Irish vote, but then he would have had that in any case, the Irishmen remembering well that all Orangemen are Tories and most Tories at heart Orange- men. Each candidate stands on the general programme of his. party, and neither has yet said anything at all distinctive.
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