Welsh Journals

alist aspirations.! As the county's Liberal Association invited its local groups to nominate suitable candidates (priding itself on its exemplary democratic selection procedure), it was widely stressed that a successor to Ellis should be chosen to represent Merioneth 'until death us do part', not simply as a second- rate, stop-gap M.P., to be succeeded by a worthier and more permanent Member at the next general election.1 'There are senses in which Mr. T. E. Ellis will not have a successor,' asserted the belligerent John Gibson in his Cambrian News editorial; it is doubtful whether Merioneth would be willing to support another candidate who intended to make politics his profession. We have always held, and still hold, that Wales stands to lose more than she gains by her members taking office. Mr. Ellis's official place first silenced him and then killed him.'12 Attention focused on four contenders: Dr. Edward Jones, the aged and ailing chairman of the Merioneth Liberal Association, A. Osmond Williams of Castell Deudraeth (the son of David Williams of Penrhyndeudraeth, the unop- posed Liberal victor in the county in the watershed election of 1868), Henry Haydn Jones of Tywyn and the Rev. Wheldon.13 On the day of Ellis's funeral there were whispered references to London barristers, W. Llewelyn Williams and T. E. Morris, Frank Edwards (sometime Liberal M.P. for Radnorshire), D. R. Daniel and, almost as an afterthought, 0. M. Edwards.14 On 9 April E. W. Evans of Frondirion, Dolgellau, a prominent local Liberal, an editor and publisher (who was, in fact, to be the founder of Y Cymro in 1914), enquired of J. Herbert Lewis, Liberal M.P. for Flint Boroughs since 1892, whether 'there was any likely candidate in sight. As things stand at present, I am inclined to think that the best course would be to get Dr. Edward Jones put forward to fill the vacancy until the General Election.'15 The selection of a Liberal candidate was in turn much influenced by the response of local Conservatives to the vacancy. Tom Ellis had, after all, faced Tory opponents in 1886, 1892 and 1895, candidatures which had created formidable financial difficulties for the Merioneth Liberal Association.16 Conservative organization in the county tended to be spasmodic, surfacing only at election time and then lapsing into inactivity. In 1898 no Tory agent had appeared even at the county's Registration Courts.17 Yet some local 1 o Y Seren, 22 April 1899. Baner ac Amserau Cymru, 19 April 1899. 12 Cambrian News, 14 April 1899. 13 Ibid. 14 Baner ac Amserau Cymru, 19 April 1899. N.L.W., Sir John Herbert Lewis Papers D59/1, Evans to Lewis, 9 April 1899. 16 Cambrian News, 14 April 1899. 17 Ibid.