Note 159 — Chapter XXIII · FALL OF LORD BEACONSFIELD.

These were Barnstaple, Liverpool, and Southwark. At Barnstaple the Liberal (Lord Lymington) increased the Liberal majority by 60 votes. But Sir R. Carden increased the Tory minority by 99. In Liverpool Mr. Whitley was returned by a majority of 2,221, though Lord Ramsay, the losing candidate, polled 3,000 more votes than the winning candidate had ever polled before. Southwark (vacated by the death of Mr. Locke, a strong Radical) was carried by Mr. Edward Clarke, a strong Conservative, by a large majority. Lord Beaconsfield’s calculations were here faulty. The verdict of Barnstaple, being a corrupt constituency, went for nothing on either side. In Liverpool the Tories maintained their ascendency, but not at all with the proportionate majority they obtained in 1874. Southwark was dominated by the publican vote, and the Liberal candidate (Mr. Dunn) was not only a bad speaker, but especially hateful to the working-class, because he had, by insisting on standing at a former election, ruined the candidature of Mr. Odger, and, by splitting the Liberal vote, had handed over the second seat in Southwark to Colonel Beresford, the Conservative candidate. The bye-elections to which Lord Beaconsfield trusted afforded no true guidance as to the drift of opinion.