The Merthyr Express

"Merthyr Express" Diary. All fixtures advertised in the "Express" iciU le included in the diary free of charge. Monday, JANUARY 31. { Theatre Royal, lerthyr-"cinder911a." Merlhyv Select Skating Rink, Angel Buildings —Daily. Central Skating Rink, Wellington-stre-et-Daily. Wednesday, FEBRUARY 2, Eisteddfod at Workmen's Hall, Ebbw Vale. Thursday, FEBRUARY 10. Grand Performance of "Creation" at Zion, Twynyrodyn, Merthyr. Friday, FEBRUARY 11. Popular Lecture at Aberaman Public HalL Wednesday, FEBRUARY 16. Competitive Concert at Ainon Chapel, Cardiff. Wednesday, FEBRUARY 16 to 18. Bazaar at the Drill Hall, Merthyr. Thursday, FEBRUARY 17. Poultry and Pigeon Show at Abergavenny; also Friday, February 18. Friday, FEBRUARY 18. Popular Lecture at Aberaman Public HaJJ. Thursday, FEBRUARY 24* Competitive Concert at Argoed. Tuesday, MARCH 1. Eisteddfod at Penjhiwoeiber. Friday, MARCH 18. Popular Lecture at Aberaman Public HalL Ea.ster Monday, MARCH 28. Eisteddfod at Abergavenny. Easter Tuesday, MARCH 29. Eisteddfod at Bethania Chapel, DowJais. Eisteddfod at Bargoed.

Notice to Subscribers. Three editions of the "Merthyr Express" are printed every week one for the Aberdare Val ley from llirwain to AbercynoH; one for the Bot ough of Merthyr Tydfil and East Glamorgan; and one for West Monmouth, inclusive of the Rhymney Valley. Subscribers in one district desirous of obtaining the edition in another district can be supplied with it through their regular agents by sending a vest card to the publisher, Glebeland- street, Merthyr, intimating their wishes and nam- ing the agent.

MERTHYR ELECTION-A GREAT ¡, SOCIALIST TRIUMPH. THE election for the borough of Merthyr was the most important ever held since the con- stituency was created, and its results tie most significant. We have had a long line of Liberal representatives, and for the last ten years a Liberal with, ostensibly, a Labour colleague but now we must face the fact of momentous import that our Liberal member has for his colleague a Socialist, elected as a Socialist, and an avowed enemy of Liberals and Liberalism. People may put what construction they like upon, the results of the poll, and the means by I which they were obtained, but there is no running away from the plain truth that the same voters who helped to secure the magnifi- cent victory of Mr. Edgar Jones also secured the scarcely less splendid victory of Mr. Keir Hardie for Socialism. Mr. Edgar Jones is to be congratulated upon having won his election with a record majority on a record poll for the constituency, and with a majority exceeding that of any other member except the Conserva- tive members for the City of London; and Mr. Keir Hardie has a majority which no one but himself ever dreamt of. How Liberal electors can reconcile to their own satisfaction this voting by one hand for Liberalism and by the other for Socialism and the candidate who had declared over and over again that every working-man who voted for a Liberal or a Conservative was recreant to his class, passes our comprehension. This extraordinary politi. cal tergiversation is the most striking feature of the election. The poll shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was within the power of the Liberal party, if they had talien their courage into both hands and stood back to back, for both seats to have been won for the two Liberal candidates. Instead of that, as the polling day approached, they hardly knew their own minds at the central committees as to what to do with their second vote. They went to Dr. Clifford for counsel upon the matter and apparently acted upon his advice to vote for the official Liberal and Mr. Keir Hardie-. But there were other fttctors in the knotty problem. Liberals were, it is alleged, frightened by Tory boastings that their candidate was sure of over 8,000 votes, and a threat at the Inst hour or so, on the eve of the poll, of the Socialists to give their second votes to the Tory if the Liberals would not support their man. The Liberals of Merthyr, instead of emulating the courage of their party in Lancashire, j Yorkshire, and Scotland, and turning a deaf ear to these bluffing alarms, were carried off j their feet by th £ m, with the result that their first man came out top of the poll, their second: at the bottom, and the Socialist, their avowed. enemy, in the second place, not very fa? from', the top. ¡ IT is no use, ut-ny ;iiat ••>« « 'remendous surprise and to ei! Liberals, We expected uiiicreut, rcguiis. '• > Wo bad not grounded our expectations ppon J the effusive demonstrations of public meeting; because there was the same vim and enthusiasm at all the candidates' meeting, and if these were correct indices of the pn\f of the con- stituency they ware all going to win—which was a manifest absurdity. Confidence in success for both Liberals was bnsed upon an extraordinary con^nsus of reports as to what was passing quietly amongst the great mass of unobtrusive voters in all parts of the borough, and these reports increased in strength from day to day up to the eve of the poll. Then, within a few homs, something must have happened which changed the whole situation and produced the results declared by the poll. Those who knew the constituency declared from the first that Mr. Fox-Davies, the Unionist, had not the ghost of a chance. Only ardent and over-sanguhie Conservatives, carried away by the idea of thousands of Liberal defections through the str.^nation in the steel trade, ever imagined that he would poll as many as 5,000. His actual poll was nearly 2,000 below that of Mr. Herbert Lewis, and only a few hundreds above thnt of Sir W. T. Lewis, thirty years ago. Omitting the Liberal Tariff Reformers from his poll it is evident that Conservatism has absolutely lost ground in the constituency instead of gaining. It is the position of the Independent Liberal candidate on the poll which, having regard to the absolute power of the party to return two Liberals with majorities of thousands over Tories and Socialists combined, is the most regrettable feature of the ejection-and the most discouraging. LET us understand the full meaning of this most inconsistent voting, and take a. wider j view of the consequences than the narrow limits of our own constituency. Because it is outside this constituency that the effects are mostly operative. The first words uttered by Mr. Keir Hardie when he returned thanks from the balcony of the Town Hall were these Tms IS A GLORIOUS VICTORY FOR SOCIALISM." Nothing about Labour—that for the moment had been forgotten, and he naturally gave expression to the sentiment uppermost in his mind. It is a great victory for Socialism. Mr. Hardie is justified up to the hilt in acclaiming his great triumph as one for Socialism. He had posed down to 1906 as a Labour representative — always regarding Labour as a fertile ground for Socialistic pro- paganda.. This time he fought his battle openly as a Socialist and the enemy of Liberals and Conservatives. Mr. Pritchard Morgan challenged him on this particular ground. He made Socialism his target from the first, and though the election has gone so badly against him there are thousands of electors besides those who voted for him who admired his courage in tackling Mr. Keir Hardie boldly as a Socialist. Mr. Hardie fought him on the lines of his own choosing. He did not shirk the combat, but defended his principles as a Socialist and recanted nothing. Further, he brought down other SocialistJ. to do battle for him—brilliant eccentrics like Mr. Bernard Shaw, and serious men like Mr. Bruce Glasier, as well as enthusiastic parsons and Noncon- formist ministers, who pleaded for him as a Socialist, and glorified the gospel of Social- ism. men, therefore, he proudly boasts of his victory as a grand triumph for Socialism he is abundantly justified by the facts. Probably the Liberal voters who gave their second votes to Mr. Hardie conscientiously intended them to be in favour of Labour and not Socialism, but that does not alter the result. He was standing as a Socialist, fighting the battle of Socialism, more strenuously even than that of Labour, the two terms being synonymous to him. It is, therefore, a magnificent victory for Socialism, and as such it has been trumpeted throughout the length and breadth of the land, to be used as a potent weapon in the hands of Conservatives for terrorising weak-minded electors against Liberalism,, and to the serious loss of the latter in the pollings for rural and residential con- stituencies. These are Pyrrhic victories, helping to our undoing. Outside many polling places in the rural and residential constituencies there were Conservative agents. emphasising the tremendous progress of Socialism shown by Mr. Keir Hardie's vote, and Liberals ignorant of the facts were dumbfounded. When the finger can be pointed to a majority of 10,000 for a Socialist over a second Liberal, in a Liberal constituency, it has consequences amongst electors in other parts of the country which those whose purview is limited to their own constituency cannot conceive; but the polls tell the tale. "v THE election has left us many things for grave reflection when we have all cooled down from the warmth and ardour generated by the contest. We have two facts of first importance demonstrated-fust, that the true Liberal vote is that represented by Mr. Edgar Jones, and secondly, that the Socialist vote represents a minority of about 2,000 honest Socialists who consistently decline to vote for any but a Socialist candidate, the balance of the Socialist candidate's support coming from the same mass of Liberals who placed Mr. Jones at the top of the poll. From these facts the deduction is clear and indisputable, that the constituency is overwhelmingly Liberal, and that the Socialist triumph was won by election manoeuvres of which Liberals have been the too-confiding victims. For the present the Socialist victory stands and will be used for all it is worth to advance Socialism elsewhere. And all the more use will be made of it from the circumstance that everywhere else throughout the country, except at Blackburn and Burnley, Socialism as a political cult has been routed, and even in the three-cornered fights Liberalism has triumph- ed in several places over Tory and Socialist combined; whilst in others it has been the victim. It cannot be denied that Mr. Hardie won on the straight, clear issue of Socialism, wherever the votes came from. We must accept the fact together with all that it implies. Much water has flowed down the Taff since the days of Henry Richard. The old-time Noncon- formity of Merthyr and Aberdare has un- questionably undergone a momentous changc during the last ten or a dozen years. The I spirit of Socialism has not only taken possession of the masses outside the churches, but it has invaded the churches themselves. We have j seen ministers and ofiicers as well as ordinary members espousing on public platforms its II orthodox advocate, and expounding its prin- ciples from their own pulpits. Some of them have instituted such invidious comparisons between Mr. Keir Hardie, as the apostle of Socialism, and the Founder of Christianity as to suggest very serious reflections whether the fundamental truths and doctrines of the faith are not rapidly undergoing a process of disin- tegration and metamorphcois which will ulti- mately leave behind the veriest shadow of the religion bequeathed to us by the last generation. We are in the throes of a great movement of religious thought—the New Theology is developing more and more a Socialistic character, and something is being evolved far different from the orthodoxy of Nonconformity. Those who blind themselves to the facts are like the ostrich, burying their heads in the sand without changing the en- vironment. THE contests in the Welsh mining counties have resulted in magnificent Liberal victories, with! extraordinary majorities for the victors. The seats were known to be safe with ample margins j tor Liberals and Labour without splits, but the most sanguine amongst us hardly anticipated such aatotfiv'iiftg majorities. Outside London City there is uocaing in the whole country I like them. MmLhyr leads off with a majority of 10,962 over the Conservative for the LifeoralJ as well as carrying a Socialist with another j majority of 9,085. East Glamorgan has fP- elected Sir Alfred Thomas, its old and only i member, with a majority of 8,991 over Mr. Gaskell, the Conservative, who polled 5,121, an increase of nearly 1,700 over Major Lindsay's vote in 1900. West Monmouth has beaten this by giving Mr. Tom Richards, who stood for Labour and Liberalism, a majority of 10,230, Mr. Cameron, the Conservative Tariff Reformer, polling only 3,043. Mid-Glamer^r.n gave Sir S. T. Evans a. majority of 9,79.1, his Conservative opponent receiving only V<82. South Glamorgan contains a much larger Con- servative element, but hero also Liberal and Labour forces combined gave, Mr. votes against 7,111 to his opponent, a majority of 4,201. South Monmouth, a constituency of similar mixed character, gave Sir Ivor Herbert a majority of 2,828. and North Monmouth again returned Mr. McKenna with tho yet larger majority of 4,231. The Rhondda was true to Mabon with a majority of 8,9o5, and Ciower to the Labour candidate, who also had Liberal support, with a majority of 0,780. All these arc the victories of Liberals and Labour com- j bined. Alderman P. Wilson RalTan. of New- bridge, has also scored a. brilliant victory for the Liberals at Leigh, in Lancashire. It was a Liberal seat upon which the I.L.P. made an attack, though the last election showed no such progressive majority as to justify the step. Mr. Raffan responded to the urgent appeal d the Liberals less than three weeks before the election, and won the three-eorncred tight with a majority of 079 over the Tory THE GENERAL ELECTION. THE election generally has not gone as eitner of the political parties anticipated. The Liberals have lost more seats than they had reckoned upon as probable reversions to their; former possessors; the Conservatives have not swept the country as they had been led to believe they were going to and Labour has suffered a serious reduction of seats instead of making the increase that sóme -of their o leaders had regarded as assured. All these results illustrate the uncertainty of political; prophecies and the wisdom 61 tho American adage of only prophesying when you know. We candidly confess that Liberals have fared much worse than we expected. We had calculated upon a loss of 75 seats. It is more than probable that it will amount to over 100, and that the Conservatives will muster 270 members in the new House. In that case the Nationalists will hold the balance of power since they can at any moment, by voting with the Conservatives, eject the Government. That, however, is a most improbable contingency. Irish hopes are bound up with a Liberal Govern- ment. If Ireland's representatives on both sides were eliminated the Government would have a majority of between 60 and 70 from England, Scotland and Wales over Conservatives from the same parts of the United Kingdom. Consequently, however dependent the Govern- ment may be upon the Nationalists for general support, and especially for support in settling the at constitutional questions with the Lords, they will be able to act with the assurance that they have a decisive majority of the representatives of the greater island behind them. Conservative journals, seeing the battle lost for them, are beginnng to argue that only British votes should count in the House. Very well, take away the Irish Conservative vote and the Government can do without the Nationalist vote. We cannot have Irish Tories counted as English Tories, and not l ave Nationalists in the Ministerial majority. THE elections have set back Tariff Reform, whatever else they have failed to accomplish. It is extraordnary how the sharp line of separa- ton has been drawn on this question and on the great constitutional issues affecting the two! Houses, between the mining and manufacturing areas and the comparatively sleepy regions of agricuture and genteel villadom. In the former the electors have gone with amazing solidity and tremendous majorities for Free Trade and House of Commons supremacy. In the latter there has been a heavy vote, with smaller majorities, for Tariff Reform and leaving the House of Lords alone. v The Times acknowledges that, in the face of the remarkable voting of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Scotland and Wales, Tariff Reform cannot be imposed. Everyone who knows anything of the agricultural and residential constituencies can understand their vote. Conservatives have no quarrel with the House of Lords. It rather suits their purpose to have a chamber which can scotch Liberal legislation, and they are always sure that the Lords will never refuse a scheme of taxation approved by a Tory Government. Their vote was naturally a party one, roused and stimulated in an extraordinary degree by all the vast propertied and social influences which have such tremendous power over the poorer electors in country districts and villadom in the residential divisions. Then the out-voter class came in, and this element alone swamped Liberals in scores of places. These powers fought as they never fought before to defeat a Budget which will compel them to bear a larger share and a juster share of the national burdens than they have ever yet borne; but they have failed in their purpose. j

GOSSIP. Everybody has been talking of the great surprise of the Merthyr election. There is no mistake about it being a surprise, and a dis- agreeable surprise to Liberals and Tories. I don't know which of the two parties has been most surprised. The Liberals expected to see a united party supporting two Liberals. The Tories counted up their men in buckram until they reached the preposterous estimate of between 8,000 and 9,000, and they actually succeeded in frightening Liberals and Socialists by thye hollow boastings. I am not a betting man, but I was almost ready to take one that they would not reach 5,000, and I should have been safe had I done so. My opinion was pooh-poohed, but it was correct for once. I should have been correct in my forecast, too, in respect of the two Liberals had the party only held together with something like British grit a.nd strenuously supported them. They could have carried another Liberal as easily as they carried the Socialist. Why they did noi do so everybody is asking. They yielded to their fears, and the results we know. « I have heard endless explanations of these results, and rumours of the causes which pro- duced them. I do not attach importance to everything I hear. It is extremely difficult to get at the truth about what happens in these crises, but that something happened in this constituency on the eve of the poll appears to be beyond dovQjt. What it was precisely we shall perhaps never know, as the parties concerned will be inclined to keep their counsel. But from all the information that has reached me I give the following without being able to vouch for the accuracy of the details. In the first place, it must be remembered that Mr. Pritchard Morgan into the con- stituency whilst Mr. D. A. Thomas still the Liberal member, and before he had termin- ated his political connection with us. While the Liberal Association was in process of organisation he came and bluntly challenged Mr. Keir Hardie. He published a letter in which he stated that if Mr. Keir Hardie would not pledge his support to the Liberal Govern- ment and receive the Liberal whip, he would oppose his re-election for Merthyr. Mr. Hardie ignored the letter, and Mr. Morgan declared that he would fight him as a Liberal. Then Mr. D. A. Thomas retired, and the Liberal Association hurriedly completed its organisation in order to select a candidate to succeed him. They put certain questions to all their nominees and amongst them whether they would abid, by the decision of the Association. All agreed except Mr. Pritchard Morgan, who said he was in the field before Mr. Thomas was out and he intended to stand as & Liberal for one of the two 6e%ta, ? ?" "? The Association then adopted Mr. Edgar j Jones as an "official" candidate; and the question of adopting one or two was, in effect, decided by the presence of Mr. Pritchard Morgan as an independent candidate. It cannot be denied that the feeling amongst Liberals generally was that, whilst they pledged them- selves as an organised party to give a preferential vote to Mr. Edgar .loses, they were at liberty to give the other to Mr. Pritchard Morgan, That feeling quickly became sort of under- standing a?r.ongst Liberal*, nl'hongh their! official candidate was run on single lines. But the understanding existed nevertheless, though there was nothing in the shape of a definite eompaet. Mr. Morgan prosecuted his can- didature independently: he worked hard he held meetings everywhere, and it is certain that his smashing attacks upon Socialism and the need of Liberal unity-had produced such effects upon Liberals throughout the constituency that on the eve of the poll his success was felt to he assured for second place if Liberals were only true to their principles. Meanwhile there was some unaccountable wobbling in the Liberal Committee. Whether they in a quandary and did not know how they stood, I cannot say, but they asked Dr. Clifford, the veteran Baptist minister and political lender, for his advice as to what Liberal should (To with their second vote, Dr. Clifford, c'eail v, could not have known of the actual state of things in the constituency, and he advised Liberals not to plump, but to use both their votes for Edgar Jcncs and Keir Hardie. The Socialists promptly made use of this and issued leaflets saying that Dr. Clifford advised the electors to vote for heir Hardie. Small blame to them. Then the Liberal Committee saw what a tactical mistake they had made, a.nd the president wrote to Dr. Clifford, who replied in substance confirming his previous advice to vote for Jones and Hardie. | That was a day or two before the poll, and the Scci -lhts made the best use of Dr. Clifford's name. Still the reports from every quarter of the constituency camc to the Independent Liberal candidate's head-quarters that daily and hourly the feeling in favour of the return of their own candidate and left their voters free to aft as they liked with their second vote. What need had they to consult Dr. Clifford? Between Monday and Tuesday something must have happened. Tories were boasting that their man had over 8,000 votes assured to him, and they might run up to even 9,000. It is alleged that use was made of this boasting by the Socialists to alarm the friends of Mr. Edgar Jones. It is alleged that the Socialists intimated that if his party declined to support Mr. Keir Hardie the supporters of Mr. Hardie would give their second vote to the Conservative, and thereby assist him to second place on the poll. Indeed, I am told it was boasted that with Socialist help Mr. Fox-Davies had a good chance of heading the poll, and there would be a close fight for the second place. I < The Miners' Federation also intervened, and from one cause and another influences were' brought to bear upon a vast body of electors which changed the whole situation. So we had the Liberal vote placing the official Liberal can- didate at the top of the poll and the Socialist, enemy of Liberals and Liberalism, a good second not far behind him. In some respects the results .are satisfactory. They show how absolutely ridiculous were the Liberal fears that the Conser- vative candidate was at any time a source of danger, or the Socialist either. The constituency is predominantly Liberal, and can at any time and always cany two Liberals who are accept- able to the working-men, with thousands over Tories and Socialists combined. Mr. Edgar Jones's poll was not the full extent of Liberal strength. To that must be added the major part of the poll of Mr. Pritchard Morgan, and a considerable proportion of Mr. Fox-Davies's votes were those of Liberal Tariff Reformers. One lesson of this election is clear and distinct —that between Liberals in their organisation and Socialists there can be no co-operation. Their objects are diametrically different, and there can be no loyalty of helpful work. They must go their own different ways and travel along their independent lines. They are opponents and not colleagues. If the Liberal Association is to grow in power and authority in the constituency it will have t <•> be an Associa- tion of Liberals united in promoting Liberal aims and containing no members inimical to those aims. Although Mr. Keir Hardie has been elected by Liberal votes in the proportion of five to one he boasts of his victory as a victory for Socialism, and he is within his right. Liberals gave him the victory with their eyes open, and it has resounded through the country as a Socialist triumph, doing the Liberal cause infinite harm in every rural and residential constituency, where Socialism is regarded with terror. His ilrst words from the Town Hall claimed the remit M a elorious victory for Socialism. His last wúrdtõ oi thanks to his agents and workers were You HAVE YOUB REWARD IX THE GREAT.VESS OF THE TRIUMPH WHICH SOCIALISM HAS Who can deny it ? Liberals who easily vote for Socialism never stop to think oi the influence of their votes upon the hundreds of thousands of moderate-minded voters who, after all, are the balancing force in the electorate. < With reference to the counting of the votes, it appears that some persons are spreading abroad a story to the effect that the Agents to the Liberal candidates did all that they could to hinder the details of the voting from being made public. Mr. Isaac Edwards, who was Mr. Edgar Jones's election agent, authorises me to contradict this and to say that it was on- of the other election agents who appealed to the Mayor, as the Returning Officer, to cancel the arrangements made for ascertaining the plumpers for each candidate, and so make it impossible for us to be in possession of this most interesting piece of information. A representative of this paper having been in- formed that Mr. Keir Hardie or his Agent had requested the Town Chvrk uot to ptrpare an analysis for publication, "ri the Clerk whether that was so anu answered in the affirmative. The day after the declaration of the poll I heard a. Conservative soundly rating Liberals on the result. You had the cheek," he said, to ask me a.nd others give our second vote to the Independent Liberal to keep the Socialist out, and then you go and put the Socialist in." The Liberal addressed protested that they had not helped to secure Mr. Hardie'? return, to which the Conservative replied Well, you may not have voted for him, but if is evident Liberals throughout the borouga did. I con- gratulate you on the result." The World says :—Though he is too ill to appreciate the honour, Lord W'mborne is certain to be given an earldom as return for the very substantial support he ha? bestowed I on Liberalism, and for Mr. Ivor Guest's devotion to the political cause espoused by his parents after many years of Conservatism in politics. Those for whom peerages are reserved include (so says rumour) Baron de Forest, Sir John Dickson Poynder (who, perhaps on account of honours in store, did not stand for Parliament at this election), and Sir Weetman Pearson. { j The appointment of Registrar of the Merthyr County Court has been conferred upon Mr. Percival Williams, solicitor, of Rhyl. The appointment is in the hands of the Judge, and I understand that the new registrar is his nephew, and furthermore related to Mr. Lloyd George. There is a feeling or srreat dissatis- faction in Merthyr that this local position, which is worth £1,300 a year, has not been bestowed upon some one of our local solicitors, who have been born and bred in the neighbour- hood, and who may justly be considered to have a stronger claim than any outsider to have one of their number chosen for the post. j They are all well qualified for the office, and especially qualified in comparison with the gentleman who has been appointed from their familiarity with the peculiarities of legal business in this important industrial community. I must say that I share the feeling of general regret that his Honour has passed them all over in favour of a stranger to the town and its industries, and that gentleman his own nephew, too. It justifies the allegation that these public appointments go oftener by personal favour than by merit and impartial considerations, "j The appointment has recalled to mind the tact that by some strange coincidence several important public offices that have latterly be- ] come vacant or been newly created in South Wales have been conferred upon North Walians. Surely fit and properly-qualified persons could have been found in South Wales for some of them. The Official Receivership for the! Merthyr Bankruptcy District went to a Xorth Walian; the chief position in the Labour! Exchanges for South Wales has been given to 1\' North Walian and a gentleman from the same part of the Principality has been appointed Chief Commissioner under the Allotments Act. Is it not about time that South Walians had a look in for the good things at their own doors ? J There was only one prisoner for trial at the I Brcsotishire Assises, which opened on Monday, is » very satisfactory elate of things. and it is to be hoped that the county will remain as free from serious crime 1!f; it has been of late. Addressing the Grand Jury, on Mon- da.y, Mr. Justice Coleridge referred to the proposals to group counties, especially in Wales, for the purpose of assizes, criminal as well as civil. If any such change takes place, he said it would be for the satisfactory and encouraging reason that it was owing to the diminution generally in the country nt large —and signally in Wale-—of .serious crinic. Look at example^ of the out-votei swamping the resident opinion of a consti- tuency :— C. Mr j. Oa v c, Abingdon, Berks I 3 311 Eddisbiuy, Cheshire CSS J827 Cockermouth iiii Devon. Tiverton 7i-2 ilil Dorset, N 1242 Tewkesbury 4232 In every constituency there is the same s-iate of things, but in many of them far worse than those above. The wonder i", with so many plural property voters the Liberal electors of, this ciass of CG7J?:.itr.ency arc aide to secure anv representatives at all. In the llr-foim ii=l« the plural voter must (I. ;¡; Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, who was accom- panied by Mrs. Chamberlain, drove from iHgh- imry, on Monday morning, to the i».:io\2 station and recorded his vote for his son, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, in the East Worcestershire Division. The veteran statesman was assisted from his carriage and to the polling booth by Mrs. Chamberlain and a footman. He seemed in good spirits, and after voting returned tft IIighbury. It must be recognised, soys The Times," that to carry Tariff Referm in face of the largf industrial centres in the North is impossible. It is not well to be too sure. Some of the True Blues" in the Merthyr constituency were so certain of a win that even on Thursday morning a number of blue rosettes were ordered to celebrate the return of the Tory candj, date Shakespearian mottoes for the members aat would-be members for Merthyr Borough Mr. Edgar Jones.— There's not a man I meet but doth salute un As if I were their well-acquainted friend; And everyone doth call me by my name. Some tender money to me." Comedy of Errors, Act iv.s,Sc. if Mr. Keir Hardie.— All hitherto goes well; The common people by numbers swarm to us," Henry V., Act iv.. Sc. Mr. Fox-Davies.— I embrace this fortune patiently, Since not to be avoided, it falls on me. Henry IV., Act v., Sc. Mr. Pritchard Morgan.— f Here burns my candle out." Henry VI., Act ii., Sc. It is reported that General Baden-Powell, tlk hero of Mafeking, is about to give up his corp mission in the army, in order that he may devofel more time to the Boy Scout movement. The result of the election in the Merthytf Borongh was declared last Thursday afternooDf shortly after five o'colck, and before the speech* making at the Town Hall had finished tbf. Express was on sale in the streets. The members of the Royal Commission what are investigating the question of electoral reform will, it is stated, reassemble as soon as the new Parliament meets in order that their inquiry may be brought to a close at the earliest possible moment. Up to the present time good deal of highly-important evidence has been tc.ken by Lord Richard Cavendish and hi* colleagues. 1 One of the best customers for British gooo. is Germany. Last year the Germans bought over £ 30,000,000 of British goods, including the following :—Cotton yarns, £,978,706; cotton piece goods, £ 1,300.283; textile machinery, £ 865,038; Hardware, £ 54,948; chinaware, re, f45,656; linen, fl-,9,361 wool, £ 4,123,505 ? woollen yarn, f29 42,S48; woollen tissues, £ 1,196,255; worsted tissues, E421, 363 :coalj E4,548,987 leather, i, 0 10 pig-iron, £ 370,833; tinned and black plates, £ 589.535 i stationery, 1102,951. It is stated that both Mr. Pritchard Morgan and Mr. Fox-Oavies will be "iiidates for the Merthyr I.'ailLtineutary Borough at the next election." t- During a dehate at Ebbw Vale, on Socialism Versus Tarii.c Reform," Mr. F. Mills, managet of the Ebbw Va.lc Iron and Steel Works, who championed Tari.il Reform, stated that tha money spent In drink in Ebbw Vale during three years would be sufficient to purchase th6 Ebbw Vale works. Very few pcopie- are aware that Mr. Jonathan Samuel, the new jnumber of Parliament foi Stockton, is a native of Ebbw Vale. He is a member by jrarents of old Monmouthshire families. He has had a strenuous career, and has attained his present proud position by indomitable phtck and those characteristics which arc eHBt-vti&i to success in any sphere of life. His fricncL in South Wales express thf, hope that Mr. S'in.if"l may retain the represent tation of fctocli i ou lor many yetra to come, Sir T. Marebait Williams was the subject ol the character sketch in Great Thoughts" last wftek. The writer of the article, Mr Howell T. Evans,, deals with the Stipendiary'* life as an educationist, eisteddfodwr, Welsh. Nationalist, and author of Welsh lyric poetry* The article is written with a facile pen, and gives an excellent glimpse of Sir March^nt's.activities in public life. jtieo After all the lying of the Tory organs ana Tory candidates upon the state of the navy it must beg all and wormwood to them for The Times to declare that Lord Fisher, upon hi< retirement from the Admiralty leaves it far stronger and better equipped than he found it, and better disposed for the defence alike of the United Kingdom and the British Empire." When he found it a Tory Go-vem., meut had been in power eight years. POLONIUS.

———Mil— -(. j Merthyr Election. The following is the best analysis that w* have been able to get of the voting:- I Plumpers. Splits. TotaL Mr. Fox-Davies 3186 1570 4756 Mr. Keir Hardie. 1872 11909 13841 Mr. Edgar Jones 375 15094 15448 Mr.Pritchard Morgan 75 3664 3G3#

-z MOUNTAIN ASH POLICE COURT TUTRSDAY.—Before Sir Merchant William* and Mr. F N. Gray EJECTMEXT —An ejectment order was ranto ed afrainst John Murphy, Napier-street. Moun< tarn Ash. DEAR FIGHT.—James Anybody was fined 4C&. and costs for fighting at Miskin. DISORDERLY CITSTOWKB.-—Dd. Lloyd was siinu mone-d for refusing to quit the Aberdare Hotel; also for assaulting the landlord, John Davies, but the complainant asked rivet the latter charge be withdrawn. —Mr. W. Thomas was for com- platnont.—Defendant was fined 20s. and costs. AD.IOT.-PATD.—Walter PNR O fummoncd for assaulting Henry Lelio at Mountain Ash.-—Mr. W. Thomas was for complainant.—The case was adjourned. His Defknt)k*-ts. —Themas Jont-,3 was sent to gad for two months for not paying the Board <^Jpnardians £ 14 18s. bd. for the" keep of his Vme and two children. MOUNTAIN ASH SKATING RINK DFOKEN INTO. Frederick James and Fred Bevan were charg- ed with breaking and entering the Emm-ess Skating Rink, Mountain Asa.—Mr. S. Ship- ton was for the prosecution,—F. S. Cook. care- taker, eaid he found a window broken, and empty chocolate boxes were strewn about the floor. Three cupboards were broken open.— Beni. Goodkin, the manager, eaid bo missed three sweaters, a handbag, pair of boots, throo pair of skates, a portmanteau, refreshments, and cigarettes. Defendants were also charged with breaking and entering Messrs. Nixon'ff Navigation Colliery office the same night.— John Christopher and John Richards, cashiers, gave evidence of the place having been entered, --Prison,ers were committed for trial on both charges.

f. Afyertite Your f WAMT9" f ift the "1/ertHyr Sscpret:$