I attended one of his meetings and heard him make an effective speech, much applauded, which turned exclusively upon imperial and financial issues.

That he had no understanding whatever with the "managers" of the Irish vote in Stockport, I have the best reason to believe.

But he was assured by them that the Irish intended to vote for him; and at a subsequent time he was rashly assailed in the House of Commons by an Irish member with the charge that he had broken faith with the Irish who elected him.

It was an unlucky assault for the assailant, as it gave Mr.Jennings an opportunity, which he promptly improved, to show that he owed nothing to the Irish voters of Stockport.

Whether they voted for him in any number in 1885 was more than doubtful; while in 1886 they voted solidly against him, with the result of swelling his majority from 369 to 518 votes.
In January 1886 I returned to Europe, and going on a visit into Yorkshire, there met a prominent Irish Nationalist, who told me that he had come into the north of England expressly to regiment the Irish voters, and throw their votes for the Conservative candidates, on the ground that it was necessary to make the Liberals fully understand their power.