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230 Old Memories of East-Bouime. [Chap. XVIIL
This success stimulated the Conservative Party all over the county to renewed efforts to organise the out-voters, with the result that at the General Election of 1874 Mr. Gregory retained his seat and Mr. Scott captured Mr. Dodson's seat without a poll. The strength of the Conservatives up to this time had been in the country districts, the Mayfield polling district being a specially Tory stronghold, and Brighton and East-Bourne Radical strongholds. In 1868 there was in East-Bourne a Radical preponderance of 5 to 1, which we estimated in 1874 had been reduced to 2\ to 1 (375 Radicals to 166 Tories), or perhaps even lower, whilst more recent elections have been thought to have yielded an actual Conservative preponderance as regards the Parish of East-Bourne. This, however, is no more than the result disclosed in all England. In other words, the Radical strength no longer lies in the towns, where education and intellectual progress prevails more than it did 50 years ago, but in the rural districts, wThere education is less advanced, and books and newspapers are less circulated.
The soundness of this reasoning will be understood by comparing the voting by polling districts in 1868 with the figures for 1857, given on a previous page. The Radical preponderance of Brighton fell in those 11 years, from 2-| to 1 to If to 1, having been at the intermediate figure of 2 to 1 at the intermediate election of 1865. |
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When the next General Election occurred, which was in 1880, the Liberals made a desperate attack on the-2 Conservative East Sussex seats, but failed utterly, and this was the more remarkable, seeing that the Election |
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