FUTURE ELECTIONS.

Press, Volume XII, Issue 1544, 18 October 1867, Page 2

FUTURE ELECTIONS.

[From the "Saturday Beview."] Mr Fawcett's proposal to thro* the expenses of the mere machinery 0 * elections on the constituencies, lDSteja of on the candidates, suggpts tne curious and interesting question wua* elections will be like in future. ■ can be no doubt that a very able change will take place, but tm> nature of this change could o^7. D affected iri a minute degree ™"*; Mr Fawcett'e proposal had eeea

adopted ot **$**&*& —Theoretically J* , be said forking , borough beartheexpensesof the returnLr officer. It is? for the benefit, nol o f the candidate, but of the constitugjicy, that the member is sent to ParKaj3j3nt,, and the party benefited is the T>arty that ought to pay. Practically of course, a seat in Parliament is considered to be a good thing which is in the'""patronage of the constituency, tc be given to the most pleasing of the candidates; but in the conception oi constitutional law, it is the constituency that wishes to have a member, find the person elected is only elected to fulfil the honourable desire of his constituents for political representation. That this is the right theory is incontrovertible. A member of Parliament goes to Westminster to accomplish active public purposes, not to be asked to the parties of great people ff ],o"feaf him a little and despise him ' fgjy iniich. It would, as Mr Mill jjjged, do something to bring the right Qseoryhome to the rude minds of British rofcere if they had to bear the expenses fl f the election, and if the candidate did not from the outset come before them as a man with plenty of money, seeking for a private advantage. But, unfortunately, the particular change proposed only met the difficulty to a very small extent, and was subject itself to one or two great drawbacks. It would multiply use- ] Bgs contests, and thereby increase that fear of dissolution which is even now one of the chief causes of the timidity and servility of the House of Commons. But it would do hardly anything to favour the candidature of men of moderate means. The constituencies would hate persons who ' pfltthem to expense without spending money in return, and everything would be done to discourage the attempts of poor men, without a chance, of success, to increase the - rates.for the gratification, as it would l>6 said, of their own vanity. The payment by others of his proportion of the expenses of the returning officer would make no perceptible difference in the difficulties that preTenfe a poor man being returned, lie expenses of advertising, of agents, aai of carrying voters to the poll jar- exceed the mere expenses of tie hustings and the polling-booths ; and when he is elected, a poor man is not made in any way richer by being in Parliament. To enable poor men to contest constituencies successfully and comfortably, all the expenses of the election must be borne by others, and he himself muet be paid while he sits in Parliament. Things may come to this some day, but fortunately they have not come to it yet. Englishmen, as a rule, do not like poor people. They have a nervous shrinking from poverty even' in its most honourable ioMb, L and Mr Laing only expresses a little more boldly than others would Lave expressed it, a general feeling that Parliament ought to consist of men who can afford to drop one or two pounds every election at the very least. There ought to be ft (w poor men. in Parliament just to an ornamental variety, and Mnd of homage to the tradition #the British Constitution that there 3 no rank, no post, and no honour, to which the very poorest subject of the Grown may not rise. But Parliament ought mainly to be in the op»ion of Mr Laing, and in the opinion of 'the, great majority of English people, a Parliament of rich men. While, therefore, the payment of the hustings and polling expenses would be theoretically right, it would do nothing to favour the chances of poor candidates ; and although it is best to do that which is theoretically right when possible, and although the adoption of Mr IWcett's proposal would have been a Useful .hint to constituencies that elections are not mere matters of pnvate bargaining, yet the rejection of this proposal has done no serious r hsnnu In some respects the elections of the filture will, we may anticipate, show aa improvement over those of the past. The frippery of elections will, it is to te hoped, gradually fade away. There will be less of that brutal debauchery, that utter demoralization of all but the &oet respectable classes, which makes Saglish elections a byword. There is aardly anything of it now in very large constituencies ; and as the constituencies' will, on the whole, be very much eOarged, there will be more decency localities, owing to the greater JBBttber of voters, and to the necessity these voters by a standBg system of organization. The Domination, the absurd speeches at fte hustingsj the idiotic compliments to the women, the dead cats, the rotten eggs will all pass away when an election ceases to be a contest between two jjjtobs, each belonging to a great, man. «ere will be hardly any bribery by Ken in the Moon and othet mysterious grangers with bags of sovereigns. fWe will be no Lambs or Lions wait- • )4g till half-past three to be bought, •"lat some of the constituencies will Hot throw away all their old habits *t once may be very true, but the wsdency of a- substitution of large Constituencies for small ones will Nto make elections more decent and ouianess-like, and to reduce greatly toe value of the individual voter, offiali constituencies will still be left, tt .» true, even after the BUI of this wasion is passed; but it must be remembered that these small conhave had a strong lesson Southern, and will henceforth hold prelections under the eye and in constant fear of the larger constitThe working classes, when gjng under the leadership of the gper classes, think themselves rec 7^Jf responsibility, and fall, "Public occasions, into the utmost (to and b ™tality- But when J , are acting for themselves they * on their best behaviour, and rather ci J ° y exercising over each other suffiteu. Jrannv to create a general apof decency and order. People 0 -?! 08 * 11 to rise in the *o 7 g0 tllrou S a great discomfort nJ?A i J" to Batis fy a conventional gaaaard of respectability. This is Kason why almost all Americans

dress night and day in suits of soli< black cloth. As garments, these clothei are in the last degree hot, stiff, ant uncomfortable; but as signs of respec tability, as protests against populai contempt, they are acceptable, because they are efficacious. The more th< working classes feel their politica power, the more they will insist on at external solemnity and order. Anc not only will the inhabitants of largt towns set the example of comparative decency, but they will insist that theii example is followed. If the inhabitanfa* of large Northern towns control themselves at election time, they will not long endure that the inhabitants of small Southern towns should continue the ordinary disgusting practices and outrageous follies of English elections. On the other hand, the outward bearing of candidates will change. It will not be enough for them to appear once or twice on the balcony of a public-hoase and grin, and shake their pockets, and. stop short, and mumble a few words about their own proud position and the blessings of living in England. They will have to address large bodies of supporters, and to address them so as to be in some measure endurable to hear. Painful as it is to think of liscarded habits and traditions at which the lesson will be learnt, Englishmen aspiring to public life will have to learn to speak audibly, and to speak two or more sentences running without staring into the crown of their hats. This also will not come at once. The great men, and the sons of very great men, will for a long time be allowed to speak with that indistinctness which is so becoming to them; but the ordinary candidate will have to make himself heard, and to go on speaking when he has begun ; and this is in its way quite as great a change as the sobriety of the humble electors will be, if ever it is brought about. The greatest change, however, which will mark future elections will" be the amount of preparatory organization which will be brought to bear on them. Hitherto there have been only two parties to an election—the electors, and the candidate, with his agents, his political principles, and his money. Henceforward there will be a third party—the local committee. In order to win an election, it will be necessary to get voters on the register, and keep them there, and see that they vote. This will probably be attempted, as the experience of America shows, by an elaborate system of caucuses, and vigilance men, and subscribers to party funds. Much needless speculation is, we think, wasted on the discussion whether the Reform Bill will be most favourable to the Conservatives or the Liberals; . and the silly cry for relief, even at the eleventh hour, for the..poor, deluded, oppressed Liberals baa not quite died away even yet. It is a matter of supreme indifference to all except those who are to benefit by a party triumph which side is to win by the Reform Bill, so long as Conservative and Liberal mean what bhey do now. It makes no matter which is in, except that the Conservatives do what the Liberals talk of doing. There is only one great measure which is supposed to be a distinctly Liberal measure, and not a Conservative one, and that is the alteration of the present position of the Irish Church. Bat it is quite needless, in order to effect this alteration, to frame a Reform Bill so as to get new seats for Liberals. Mr. Disraeli is quite as likely to alter the position of the Irish Church as Mr Gladstone is, and if he alters it at all he will alter it not with the lingering stroke of a man who has a tenderness for churches, but with the bold freedom of a man who is perfectly unprejudiced and impartial. The real question of future elections is not whether what we now call Liberals or what we now call Conservatives will be returned in this place or that, but who will organize parties in the constituencies, and what will be their object. The Trades' Unions, we may be sure, will organize. They have the great advantage that they start with an organization all ready for action, while other organizations have to be devised and carried out. What these organized bodies will want in candidates is either rich men who will contribute to their funds, give them social countenance, and support them in adversity, or else clever, energetic men, who will be a credit to them, expound their views, and work on p>ublic opinion in the desired direction. Either wealth, therefore, or a total absorption in public life, and very often in some special form of public life, will be the qualification of a candidate, except where, as in many counties and some boroughs, the influence of a family or the prestige of a name overbears all opposition, and makes the election of a particular candidate seem as necessary and natural as the sequence of night and day.