SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1868.
THE HAMPSHIRE ELECTIONS.
Under the operation of the new Reform Act the county of Hants loses three of its borough members,—namely one each, taken from Andover, Newport, in the Isle of Wight, and Lyrnington. It will in the next Parliament return 16 representatives instead of 19, and of this number 12 of the seats are already contested. No opposition candidates have as yet appeared for the representation of North Hants, Petersfield, or the county of the Isle of Wight. The members for Petersfield and the Isle of Wight, Mr. Nicholson and Sir John Simeon, Bart., are Liberals; those for North Hants, Mr. Beach and Mr. Sclater-Booth, are Tories; so that with regard to those three constituencies—assuming that they will remain as they are—the political voting power in the House of Commons is balanced. In all the other constituencies of the county there are to be contests, and we are glad to say with the fairest prospects of success for the Liberal cause. We do not say this merely because we desire it, but upon a very careful and deliberate view of the facts. If we ever had a doubt of the strength of the Liberal position, the angry vituperation of our opponents, and especially of our senile contemporary down the town, would tend to remove it. They may, however, as usual, have all the scolding to themselves if we can only get the votes; and of that we have the strongest hope. We would only remind them that on every great question brought forward during the last thirty years we have beaten them in the end, and we feel confident we shall beat them again; yes, and it is possible—as we often told them on the suffrage question—that we may compel their erratic and unprincipled leaders to be the instruments of their defeat. They were beaten upon the question of the corn and provision laws—upon the repeal of the navigation laws—upon the admission of Jews to Parliament—upon the partial opening of the Universities—upon the repeal of the paper duty and the French treaty—upon Church rates and the great issue of Parliamentary reform—and after all these ignominous defeats here they are crowing as defiantly as ever, and ready for another beating, which they will most assuredly receive before they eat their Christmas pudding. Their leaders are not to be trusted. Lord Derby, of whom our supple Premier professes to be the obsequious follower, has been in his time Whig, Peelite, and Protectionist. He last came into office to stem the tide of democracy, and ended by "shooting Niagara" with "a leap in the dark." A free translation of Lord Derby's motto—"Sans changer" is "every Stanley hedges." An able writer, who thoroughly understands his lordship's character, said—"It is absurd to censure with gravity a man for the shape of whose cerebellum, as for the shape of whose legs, thirteen queer earls are accountable, and, whatever the jerks of his career, and the mischief of his capers, there is neither frowning nor laughing at a man who looks upon politics as a 'scrimmage' and history as a 'spree!' Your laws in establishing a senate of hereditary legislators took the chances of temperaments; and if Lord Derby looks upon life as a joke, and chooses to poke fun at posterity, who is to blame—you or he? The same writer, in another place, says—"When Lord John Russell asked him to govern the colonial empire, a year or two after, he accepted the office with a chuckle; it was a joke for a man who had never been out of England except to Ireland, and who may have got his history as Charles Fox did, in Shakespeare's plays, to be asked to organize the most complicated colonial system in the world; and if he very nearly destroyed the colonial empire, why how absurd to impeach him—who asked him? Does not know where Tambov is! Well, did be ever pretend to know where Tambov is? Did he ever set up in the Colonial Office to know anything? Did he ever presume to be wiser than the clerks? Did he ever contradict King Stephens in his life? Of course he never did. There was never any concealment or sham about him. He found he was born into a seat in the Commons, and then into the Lords, just as he was born into Knowsley and a third of Liverpool; and he always said he did not see why he should not amuse himself in governing. It was as good fun as racing, and besides he could do both, as he always had done, at the same time—running losing horses in both. He hated work, as he told everybody; he would fight in the House as long as they liked, and whom they liked —it was all the same to him—but drudge, as he always said, he would not; and if they chose to give him office, why they must look out for a deuce of a mess—and there always was a deuce of a mess." This is no unfair portrait of the man whose policy during the last twenty years is extolled by the Premier—twenty years of defeat and disaster for the Tory party, and here they are again in Southampton and elsewhere, using the old cries, and falling back upon the stale pretences that have been utterly exploded by facts and arguments, whilst the Liberals can refer with feelings of triumph to the achievements they have won for the nation over ignorance, folly, and prejudice.
Leaving out the constituencies of the Isle of Wight, Petersfield, and North Hants, there are Andover, Christchurch, Newport, Portsmouth, Lymington, Southampton, Winchester, and South Hants—twelve seats in all—to be contested. In Winchester and Portsmouth only one Conservative candidate in each place has as yet put in an appearance, and the Liberals are both strong and united in the old city and the famous English arsenal. We also hear good accounts from Andover and Christchurch, an excellent Liberal and the inheritor of an historical name being the favourite for the last-named place. We have not heard what they are doing in Lymington, but the Liberals there, if they are strong enough, would do credit to themselves and service to their borough by the election of Mr. Daniel Pratt.
In our own borough of Southampton the prospects of the Liberal candidates, Mr. Moffatt and Captain Maxse, are of the brightest character. Their canvass during the past fortnight has been highly successful, and at the district meetings they have received the hearty approval of crowded audiences. The futile attempt of the Advertiser to depreciate Mr. Moffatt's services to the town is unworthy of an answer. We leave the Mayor, the chairman of the Advertiser company, to reply to their unfounded assertions. That gentleman admitted the other evening at a district meeting, and has always admitted, that Mr. Moffatt has rendered eminent services to Southampton, and we call him into court as a witness against his own people. On the Civil Service question, we have only to repeat that the author of the measure, Mr. Monk, the Liberal member for Gloucester, ought to know who helped him in his work better than anybody else—certainly better than the snake in the grass down at the Custom House—and we must present his letter, which we lately published, as a sufficient answer to all cavillers. Mr. Moffatt has been a good and useful member, and his colleague, Captain Maxse, promises to be the same. His manly bearing, his thorough independence of character, combined with high principle—and the frankness with which he answers every question put to him, are qualities which have already secured him a high position, and will place him in the House of Commons as member for this borough in the new Parliament.
With respect to the Southern Division of the county, the contest has now fairly commenced—the first that has taken place for thirty-one years. The Liberal candidates are the Right Hon. W. Cowper and Mr. Clement Milward, Q.C., of Fairthorn Manor, Botley. Mr. Cowper is well known to all the electors of South Hants, and his long Parliamentary services have placed him in the front rank of those politicians who devote their energies to social as well as political improvements. By his own merits, to say nothing of his connection with the great British Statesman under whose guidance he acted for thirty years in the House of Commons, he is eminently qualified to represent any constituency in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Cowper's colleague, Mr. Milward, is probably not so well known in the county as himself, though he is connected with a family well-remembered both in Portsmouth and Southampton. His father, Captain Milward, afterwards raised to the rank of Admiral, was very well known in Portsmouth during the war, and his uncle, Major Milward, resided in this town for a period of five-and-twenty years. At the close of the war his father settled in Ireland, and Mr. Milward himself, though educated in this country, where he entered upon his legal studies early in life, is well acquainted with the two leading Irish grievances—the church and the land; on both of which he is eminently capable, by knowledge and experience, of giving a sound opinion. Mr. Milward was called to the bar of the Middle Temple in 1846, and after a most successful career on the Northern Circuit, of which he is now on of the leaders, he was in 1865 raised to the rank of a Queen's Counsel. He is also a Bencher of the Middle Temple, and his practice in the Court of Admiralty and Parliamentary business, and his knowledge of maritime affairs, in addition to his other unquestionable qualifications, will make him a most suitable member for the Southern Division of Hants. About a dozen years ago Mr. Milward purchased Fairthorn Manor, Botley, once the residence of the late William Cobbett, where he has erected a beautiful mansion, and made many valuable improvements on the estate. His uncle, Colonel Milward, of the Artillery, was with Lord Napier of Magdala throughout the Abyssinian campaign, and brought home the despatches containing the result of the expedition.
Mr. Milward's address appears in our advertising columns. It rings of the true metal, and will commend itself to all true Liberals. We hope the Liberal electors of South Hants will now show what they can do. They have two candidates of first-rate position, in a social, intellectual, and political point of view—they have a good cause, a favourable register, and a leader in whom they have confidence. They ought to win, and we believe they will do so by a glorious majority. The Tory candidates out against them are Lord Henry Scott, of Beaulieu Abbey, and Mr. J. C. Garnier, of Wickham, Colonel Fane having beat a hasty retreat on hearing of the Liberal advance.