After five by-election setbacks in a month, the prestige of Britain's ruling Conservative Party was in a shocking state. The Tories not only had the Labor Party to contend with these days (a most unsatisfactory alternative to most British voters), but were now confronted with a new popularity surge by the long moribund Liberals. Last week, fearful of disaster in still another by-election, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan himself hurried to the grimy, North Country industrial town of Stockton-on-Tees to throw his weight behind the Tory candidate.
There was also a touch of sentiment in Macmillan's journey to Stockton: it was...