FOURTEEN hundred candidates for Parliament are making their opinions known, ably supported by a few thousand other speakers, and there is little thought this week of anything but the election. It is generally agreed that few elections in recent years have been so dull in proportion to their importance. But there are nevertheless a few election humours. First among them we should place Mr Lloyd George’s testimonial to Mr Asquith: “I have always known,” said Mr Lloyd George, “whatever his opinions were, that he was sincere, and that he was honest, and that he had only the public interest at heart.’’ Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed. Further, we are indebted to the Protestant Alliance: which favours us with a list of Parliamentary candidates classified according to their denominations, a guide to the free and independent voter who may be interested in these matters. We learn from it that Lord Hugh Cecil and Mr George Lansbury are among the “High Churchmen (Ritualists)” and are not recommended to the electoral suffrages of the Protestant faithful. But among the “Evangelical Churchmen” we find the name of Sir Samuel Hoare, and we are glad to note that membership of the Council of the English Church Union is not considered by the Protestant Alliance incompatible with Evangelical Churchmanship. Mr Asquith, presumably on the strength of his having sat for Paisley, ranks as a Presbyterian.

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