THE COUNTY COUNCILS. T HE County Council elections, so far as
they are known at the time we write, are, we think, decidedly more satisfactory than the newspapers in general admit. In the first place, we do not regard the very light polls in. London as a bad sign. For it is hardly possible to exaggerate the ignorance in which many, perhaps most, of the electors found themselves as to the qualifications of most of the candidates. What can a man do better than abstain from voting, if after all the inquiries he can make he can discover nothing certain about the qualifications of the gentlemen amongst whom he is com- pelled to choose ? The present writer, for instance, found himself able to vote with any confidence only at the last moment, and then only because there was at least one very respectable candidate, a good deal of whose work was de- tailed very late in the day to the electorate, and another candidate whom it seemed very important to defeat on the ground that he had supported the officials of the Metro- politan Board at a time when it was perfectly clear that they ought not to have received any support. The writer voted, therefore, for one man whom he wished to see elected, and for another who, though he inspired no confidence, seemed extremely likely, by virtue of his purely adventitious popularity, to displace the supporter of the corrupt officials ; and, fortunately, both were returned, though, of course, in the wrong order. We present this case merely as evidence of the difficulties under which tens of thousands of the electors must have laboured in choosing between men of whom they knew hardly anything, those least likely to put their own interests before the interests of the people, and least likely to make gross mistakes as to what the interests of the people are. We do not think, therefore, that the very light polls in London on the first occasion of exercising this great trust are at all discreditable to the electors. It is much better not to vote at all, than to vote by mere guess-work in an election where so very much harm may be done by guessing wrong.
In the next place, there is a feature in the elections, not only in London but in the rural districts, which shows not merely that party lines were not followed, but that a large number of the electors preferred to vote for a respectable candidate of the other party, where they had real confidence in his good sense and capacity to deal with local affairs. Not merely is Lord. Rosebery elected for a thoroughly Conservative constituency by a very remarkable majority, and Lord Thring by an enormous majority for a district of West Surrey which, even if it were shown to be exceptionally Gladstonian, in spite of be- longing to a most strenuously Conservative county division, would assuredly be Gladstonian by a most minute majority ; but Greenwich, which in politics is almost always Conserva- tive, rejects its time-honoured political representative for a County Councillor who is of the opposite party; Bermond- sey, in its County Council, substitutes an Opposition politi- cian for a Ministerialist ; Central Finsbury does the same ; Rotherhithe does the same ; and Brixton imitates the same example in the selection of both its representatives. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Sir Thomas Farrer, for instance, failed in East Marylebone, though he professed to be a non-political candidate, East Marylebone being de- cidedly Conservative and. Sir Thomas Farrer well known as a moderate Gladstonian. And there are several other cases of the same kind. But, on the whole, it will be found that London, so very strongly Conservative in politics, has re- turned many more Gladstonians than Conservatives to the County Council, and that many of the most Conservative counties have done the same ; while in much fewer cases, like that of South Hackney, the process has been reversed, and a Conservative returned at the head of the poll instead of a Liberal. On the whole, it may certainly be said that the electors, when they saw a chance of returning a really good local member who did not agree with them in politics, have gladly embraced the opportunity of showing that their politics do not blind them to the sense and worth of men who take the other side from themselves.
Again, it is highly satisfactory to find that though a few of the counties have marked strongly their dissatisfaction with the traditional management of local affairs, by far the greater number have entrusted the first organisation of their local affairs to those who have been long accustomed to deal with them,—i.e., to Councils that are certain to be practically guided by the former Quarter-Sessions Magis- trates. Here, too, of course, there are remarkable excep- tions, as in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, and perhaps Northamptonshire, where agricultural distress, and, we imagine, a certain want of sympathy for the farmers that shows itself in many of the gentry, have produced much irritability of feeling, and brought up to the poll a great number of voters who wish to try the effect of a complete change of management. Still, in the country at large, it is pretty clear that the direction of local affairs will, at all events at the outset, be in tried and experienced hands. Nor is it undesirable that there should be a few County Councils where the discontented party are in the ascendant, and may have the power to furnish either the "awful warning" or the example of a courageous and original initiative, to the other counties which may have shown themselves either more prudent or more timid.
One feature in the London elections is especially satis- factory,—the scattering to the winds of the official party on the Metropolitan Board. It was feared, with some reason, that the Metropolitan Board, being the only power in possession of a fixed organisation, might carry everything before it. In point of fact, it has turned the people against it, as its general negligence and lenity to corrupt practices deserved that it should do. Many a candidate has been returned solely because he was thought to be the most powerful opponent of the old Metropolitan Board. The chief of the minority, Mr. Fardell, was returned for South Paddington at the head of the poll, and the repre- sentatives of the old mismanaging party will be few and powerless on the County Council. This speaks volumes for the good sense of those electors who have voted, for it is at least as important that notorious mismanagement should be emphatically censured, as that faithful service should be acknowledged,—perhaps even more important, for it is not so easy to deter the selfish and the idle from mischievous meddling in local matters, as it is to stimulate the honest and the industrious to even greater exertions.
We were never better satisfied. with that provision of the Local Government Act which enables the County Councils to supplement the votes of the people by co-opting the men who will help them the most, and who have missed their election, than we feel at the present moment. This provision should be made the means of strengthening the County Councils by the selection of such men as Sir Thomas Farrer and Mr. Dobbs, who have failed at the poll, but who, by the admission of all good men, whether of their party or not, have the power to lend very effective assist- ance to the popularly elected members. To our minds, this provision, if it be properly used, and not used as a party weapon, may really make these County Councils far more efficient than any assembly could be which was wholly created by popular election, and, of course, indefinitely more effective than any could be which was not in the main the result of popular election. The defect of purely elective bodies, where a great deal of special knowledge,— a great deal of the kind of knowledge which only experts have,--is required, is the inability to secure the right counsellors at their deliberations. The great defect of nominated bodies, however well-chosen, is want of favour with the people, and want of that self-confidence which popular election bestows. The new Councils ought to have both qualifications if the Aldermen are well chosen, as we hope that they will be. The Councils in that case ought to have all the specific qualifications of nominated. bodies, together with all the confidence and courage of bodies conscious of popular favour.
Previous page
