Mr. Disraeli’s Electoral Address, which was issued in October, had three defects. It appealed to the country to return the Ministry to power in order to prevent the Pope from becoming master of England--a perfectly absurd attempt to revive the “bogey” of Papal aggression. It proclaimed no positive policy, for it merely pledged the Government _not_ to disestablish the Irish Church. It was as stilted in its rhetoric as Tancred’s revelation on Mount Sinai. Mr. Gladstone’s Address, issued a week later, was much more seductive and business-like. It proclaimed a positive policy of administrative reform and of retrenchment, justified a policy of conciliation to Ireland, and pressed for the disestablishment of the Irish Church. The result of the appeal to the new electors was fatal to the Government. The Liberals carried the country by a majority of over 100 seats. Lancashire strongly supported the Conservatives--whereas Yorkshire was strongly Liberal. The Liberals showed themselves weak in some of the Home Counties where “villadom,” as Lord Rosebery calls it, reigns supreme. Though the Tory Party was sadly shattered in Essex, the counties were, however, on the whole, wonderfully faithful to Mr. Disraeli, and he came within one vote of dividing with Mr. Gladstone the thirteen electoral boroughs, with a population between 100,000 and 60,000. The Liberals, on the other hand, were strongest in boroughs with a population between 60,000 and 20,000, and in those with a population above 100,000 they captured 41 seats out of 49. Mr. Gladstone was rejected by South-West Lancashire, but the Greenwich electors, having taken the precaution to return him, rendered his defeat of little practical importance. Mr. Mill lost his seat for Westminster, and thus his Parliamentary career closed, his only contribution to the Statute-Book being the law compelling railway companies to attach smoking carriages to passenger trains. Lord Hartington was beaten in North Lancashire, and Mr. Bernal Osborne, one of the wits of the House, lost his seat at Nottingham. Scotland returned only seven Tories, nicknamed by the late Mr. Russel, editor of the _Scotsman_, the “Seven Champions of Constitutionalism.” Roughly speaking, the Liberals won in counties where Dissent was strong, whereas the Tories won in counties where the influence of the Church of England prevailed. The boroughs that were carried by the Tories were those where the competition of Irish labour was most felt, or where anti-Papal agitators had most influence, and in Lancashire, where Anglican clergy and laymen had, during the Cotton Famine, been most assiduous in administering the Relief Fund.