Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/142

 134] ENGLISH HISTORY. [jtjnh

politics, the Unionists again putting forward Mr. H. G. Younger, who was connected with one of the large breweries of Edinburgh. He, however, failed to maintain even the modest position he had occupied at the general election, for he was now defeated by 1,930 votes, the numbers being 4,891 for Mr. Macrae and 2,961 for Mr. Younger.

A few days later Lancashire was again appealed to on the subject of the Ministerial policy, a double vacancy having occurred at Oldham by the death of Mr. Ashcroft and the resignation of Mr. Oswald, who in 1895 had won the two seats for the Conservatives. Oldham had never shown much political consistency, the majority, always a narrow one, being alter- nately Conservative or Radical. On the present occasion the choice of the Conservative party was somewhat surprising, but the contest was thereby rendered more interesting to outsiders : Mr. Winston Churchill, the eldest son of Lord Randolph Churchill — a promising statesman prematurely cut off — was associated with Mr. Mawdsley, a well-known trade-unionist leader, who for many years had prudently and skilfully watched over the interests of the cotton - spinner operatives. The Radicals selected as their champions Mr. Emmett, a local manu- facturer, and Mr. Runciman, a politician and a popular speaker at labour meetings. At Oldham as at Ashton the Protestant Church societies actively intervened in the struggle, endeavour- ing to obtain pledges from the candidates in favour of the " five points " of the Protestant Charter, viz., (1) maintenance of the royal supremacy, (2) abolition of the episcopal veto, (3) substitu- tion of deprivation for imprisonment, (4) control of ecclesiastical offences by a lay judge, and (5) simplification of legal procedure. The representatives of the Protestant societies frankly stated to the various candidates that they would support only those candi- dates who pledged themselves to the reform of the National Church. Mr. Mawdsley was willing to accept all five points, and Mr. Churchill only demurred to certain matters of detail. On the other hand the Liberal candidates, expressing themselves generally in favour of Church Disestablishment, objected to the abolition of the episcopal veto, and would not bind themselves to support a Clergy Discipline Bill. Under these circum- stances the Church societies urged all Protestant Churchmen and Nonconformists to vote for the Conservative candidates. The result showed that whatever other considerations may have influenced them, the electors of Oldham were not prepared to subordinate their political opinions to ecclesiastical preferences. The two Radical candidates, who by the way were not afraid to support the Irish Home Rule question, were returned by con- siderable majorities, the figures being Mr. A. Emmett (R.), 12,976; Mr. W. Runciman, 12,770; Mr. Winston Churchill (C), 11,477 ; Mr. J. Mawdsley (C), 11,449. The simultaneous election (July 6) for the Osgoldcross Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire presented comparatively little interest. The sitting