There is a great lull in the political world, a
lull such as we have never noticed in the first week of the new year, when representatives are usually preparing for the meeting of Parliament by addressing their constituents, and telling them either what their constituents wish to hear, or what the representatives wish them to hear, in the hope that they may alter their minds. But this year there is a great silence; and for the most part people are looking eagerly to see whether, in the Midlands, the by-election for South Worcestershire (the Evesham Division) will confirm or re- move the impression made by the elections for Forfarshire and Brigg. The Gladstonians hope that, as Sir E. Lechmere was a very popular landlord, and as the majority in 1892 was only 580 in a poll of 7,750 voters, they may win the seat now that the great social influence of the late Member is with- drawn. We cannot, of course, prophesy how this may be; but with the great constitutional issues that are now at stake, it would be but a bad augury for the Unionists if Colonel Long should lose his election merely because he is not Sir Edward Lechmere. We hope, indeed, that he may gain on the Unionist majority of 1892.
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