In the July elections for the new Parliament in the United Kingdom, prominent and rising Liberal Party star, William Ewart Gladstone, lost his seat at Oxford University. Gladstone, earlier a Conservative had angered his ultra-conservative constituency with his move to the left. The nature of British elections enabled him to run immediately for a seat in more radical Lancashire where he was elected two days later, freeing him to become one of the most famous liberals in European history. (By John Osborne)