Mid Glamorganshire (UK Parliament constituency)

[1] Although a leading member of the county aristocracy, Talbot did at this time support the principle of electing working men to parliament, especially in mining constituencies, and endorsed the efforts of the Rhondda miners to have William Abraham (Mabon) selected as Liberal candidate for the new Rhondda constituency.

[2] Despite adopting a number of Gladstonian principles, Talbot remained opposed to Irish Home Rule, and this was inevitably going to present a difficulty at the 1886 general election.

He wrote to his fellow county member, Hussey Vivian, that he had a meeting with Maesteg Liberals and although they were friendly to his face, 'I am told that [they] became quarrelsome after I left, and suggested various substitutes'.

[5] Upon Talbot's death in 1890, his successor was Samuel Thomas Evans, a grocer's son from Skewen who was initially a militant nonconformist radical and supporter of Welsh Home Rule through Cymru Fydd.

Evans is appointed president of the probate, divorce and admiralty division of the High Court of Justice, prompting a by-election.