Martin’s-le-Grand; and a manifesto to the civil and postal servants of Newcastle was issued the same day by W. E. Clery, in which he urged that they, as Government servants, had no option but to vote for Mr. Morley and do their best to secure his return. There were five hundred Civil Service voters in Newcastle, and in Civil Service circles it is held that this manifesto secured the return of the author of the famous “Newcastle programme.” It should be stated here that Mr. Pandeli Ralli, Mr. Morley’s opponent, declined Clery’s request for an interview. The question of the dismissals was now becoming widely public, and Clery himself spared no pains to advertise the fact of the harsh and unmerited dismissal of himself and Cheesman from that “civil servitude” which they were only seeking to improve up to the level of model employment. The London Trades Council adopted a resolution urging the new Postmaster-General to reinstate the chairman and secretary of the sorters’ organisation. But the Liberal Postmaster-General evidently felt himself bound by the decision of his Tory predecessor, and declined to reinstate in the service officers who had been dismissed for “conduct directly subversive of discipline.” At the same time the Postmaster-General claimed to reserve “to himself the right of considering on its merits the general question of the rights of civil servants in regard to the electoral franchise.” Clery immediately seized on this as an opportunity of approaching Mr. Gladstone, and drew his attention to it in a letter. The dictatorial attitude taken up by Mr. Arnold Morley over this question of the franchise was by many interpreted as a menace. Postal and civil servants had hitherto been under the impression that no electoral disabilities now remained which any minister desiring to hamper the freedom of election might take advantage of legally. And as this was a vexed question concerning at least 200,000 electors in the Government service, Mr. Gladstone, as Prime Minister, was asked to give some information. As the important concession of free and unrestricted public meeting for postal servants afterwards granted by the Prime Minister was undoubtedly resultant on the action taken by W. E. Clery, the text of his letter to Mr. Gladstone is here given:— “8 EAGLE COURT, ST. JOHN’S LANE, E.C., _August 31, 1892_.