xi POLITICAL LIFE 265 



manufactured articles used in particular districts. I 

 had experience of the appreciation with which such 

 collections of raw and manufactured articles are 

 regarded by our continental neighbours, and I could 

 vouch for the importance which foreign manufacturers 

 attached to such museums. I added that Manchester 

 had, through the Ship Canal, a direct shipping trade 

 with all parts of the world, and this rendered it all the 

 more necessary that our manufacturers should be able 

 to examine at home specimens of the goods which 

 were most in demand even in the most distant foreign 

 market. 



About this time came the great split, the Home 

 Rule Bill, Mr. Gladstone's manifesto to the electors 

 of Midlothian of June i2th, 1886, and John Bright's 

 address to the electors of the Central division of 

 Birmingham, dated from Rochdale, 24th June. It 

 was this latter that did more than anything else to 

 decide the majority of the electors in the 1886 

 campaign. 



My Conservative opponent on this occasion was my 

 neighbour Colonel Thomas Sowler, afterwards Sir 

 Thomas, the well-known and respected proprietor of 

 The Manchester Courier. At that time the Liberal 

 Unionists had not completely amalgamated with the 

 Tory party, and therefore they were not satisfied unless 

 in some constituencies they could bring forward a 

 candidate of their own against both Liberal and Tory. 

 The electors of South Manchester on their way to 

 church on June 27th discovered some large parti- 

 coloured placards, half red and half blue, which had 

 been pasted over mine, and which meant that a third 

 candidate had appeared to ask their suffrages. The 

 placards bore the name of North Dalrymple, and were 

 dated from the Queen's Hotel, and I had the honour 



