THE ELECTIONS OF THE FUTURE.
THE next Parliamentary Election will be held subject to the provisions of the " Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883," which came into operation on the 15th of this month. What place will be the first to illus- trate its workings is as yet hidden from the anxious gaze of whips and political associations. But wherever it be, the candidates and their agents are men who will deserve the highest commiseration. The task of conducting an elec- tion will be found as difficult as Mr. Tennyson found that of writing in hendecasyllabics, requiring him to be " careful of motion, like the skater on ice that hardly bears him." But as the accuracy of Mr. Tennyson's ear guided him safely through the mazes of the fantastical and dainty metre, so the candi- date who relies on the uprightness of his own conduct, and absolutely repudiates any attempt to win his election by the length of his purse, or of his agent's experience, may see himself successfully through the pitfalls of an election. There is no doubt, however, that to do so he must cast to the winds all notions of conducting his election on the old lines, under the influence of the old ideas, and by the aid of the old instruments. No longer can there be any contest between the rival parties to forestall each other in the acquisition of public- houses for committee-rooms, or in the employment of all the flys, and cabs, and donkey-carts in the town for the conveyance of voters to the poll. Already the candidates' money may not be used in decorating the persons of their supporters with ribbons, or in deafening the ears of their adversaries with brass bands ; now, it may no longer be expended in dazzling their eyes with torches. The pomp and panoply of war will soon disappear from election struggles, and their absence may possibly make them even a little dull ; but if only the metaphors drawn from war in election speeches would disappear too, on the balance there would, perhaps, be a diminution in dullness. Nor will the loafers of a town be able to look forward to an election as to a harvest of industrious idleness. The crowds of clerks who wrote nothing, and of messengers who never carried messages except from one public-house to another, the watchers who got five shillings a day for looking at the watchers on the other side, the amateur bill-poster who received half-a-crown for putting a bill up and another half-crown for preventing its being torn down by guarding it—from the genial shelter of the nearest beershop, all these attendant shadows will have to disappear. They will not be able to stand the chilling blasts of the new Act.
It is not so much the wider definitions given to corrupt practices, the heavier penalties imposed on those who are guilty of them, and the extension of the classes of persons who can be guilty of them, which are likely to prove the most effec- tive provisions in the Act. They, no doubt, will have their effect. The extension of the offence of " treating " so as to hit all treaters, and not merely the candidate or his agent, and to hit also the person treated, is likely to diminish consider- ably, if it does not altogether stop the flow of beer and the consumption of beef which used to be such a marked feature of an election. The increase of the penalties for corrupt and illegal practices is also likely to make people shrink more than they have hitherto done from indulging in them. But an increase in the chances of punishment for an offence is more deterrent than an increase in the penalty. The presence of the Director of Public Prosecutions or his assistant at the trial of every election petition, with power, either proprio motu or by direction of the Court, to call witnesses and pro-
secute there and then any suspected person for an offence under the Act, is likely to cause an Election Court to be regarded as less like a music hall, and more like a Criminal Court, than it has been hitherto. The fear that a man will find himself playing a principal part in a low tragedy, in which the cata- strophe consists in being himself hauled off to prison, is more likely to be deterrent than the prospect merely of figuring at the expense of other people as the light walking gentleman in a low comedy.
But stringent provisions against the commission of offences and stringent penalties and methods of detection have failed before, and may fail again. The provisions of the new Act which are likely to cause a real revolution in the conduct of elections are those directly and indirectly aimed at limiting expenses. The schedules to the Act are, as often happens, the most important part of it. When in boroughs, only one election agent, one polling agent in each polling station, and one clerk and one messenger and one committee-room, for every 500 electors may be employed, the candidate can- not, even if he would, corrupt a whole town by bribery dis- guised under the form of payment for services rendered.
When, further, the total expenses are limited to £350, and an additional £30 for every 1,000 electors above 2,000, it
is impossible, except in the very smallest boroughs, for mere length Of purse to carry the day. Nor can the limit set be easily or safely overpassed, as the candidate has to verify
by declaration his agent's statement as to how much his expenses come to, and no payment may be made on their account except through an agent. If any such payments are
'made, if the maximum is exceeded, the election is void; and if the declaration is false, not only is the election void, but the candidate renders himself liable to seven years' penal servitude for perjury. Nor will it be easy for the candidate's supporters 'to spend the money he cannot spend himself. Paying for the 'conveyance of voters to the poll in any way is an illegal pay- ment, and by whomsoever made is an illegal practice, and .subjects payer and payee to a fine of £100. Payments for exhibiting bills made to any one who is not a regular adver- tising agent ; payment for committee-rooms in excess of the authorised number, and payment of election expenses except through the election agent, have the same effect. Not only is the individual liable, but he invalidates the election as well. Nor is this all. Lending conveyances usually let for hire to convey voters to the poll, paying for bands, ribbons, torches, sand banners, employment of persons in any way connected with the election otherwise than as authorised by the Act, subject the person offending to £100 fine, as for an illegal payment or employment, though the election is not thereby invalidated. No individual, however zealous, would venture to brave the penalty, when any of the other side could thus attack him in perfect safety, without the danger of an election petition and wholesale disclosures. The result is that it is almost impossible for the limits of expenditure laid down by the Act to be exceeded. Instead, therefore, of the next general election causing the waste of several millions of money,: it eught hardly to cause the expenditure of as many hundred thousands. Instead of voters being polled at the price of a• pound or two pounds per head, they ought to be polled for as many crowns. In the city of Winchester, for example, the smoieht capital of England, the senior Member was returned in 1880 by something under a thousand votes, and his returned expenses exceeded £1,600. Under the present Act, they cannot exceed £350, or nearly one-fifth. In the counties, the change will be even greater. The free con- veyance of out-voters—that ruinous source of expenditure— is • stopped, and the total expenditure ought not to be a quarter of what it has been.
But the greatest and most beneficial result of all is that henceforth the candidate must rely upon his own personal position and energy, or the voluntary services of others, for his success. As canvassers are not included amongst the persons who may be employed for payment, it follows that they are excluded. Neither the candidate nor any one else may employ paid canvassers. Canvassing, therefore, if it is to be done at all, must be done wholly by the voluntary efforts of unpaid canvassers. But if the would-be constitu- ents work for the candidate for nothing, it is quite certain that they will assume a greater share than- they have hitherto enjoyed in the selection of candidates, and in the control of their conduct when elected. They will no longer tolerate the Mem- ber who goes into Parliament as a supporter of a party against whose leaders he persistently votes, when he has got there, trust- ing to the fears of " dividing the party " for his acceptance by the party at the next election. It was a black day for the poli- tical black-sheep when the Corrupt Practices Act was passed. But the voluntary system has its dangers as well as its benefits. It is probable that every member of the Association which is now formed in every enlightened constituency would become an authorised agent of the candidate. If the Association pays for the preparation of canvass-books, &c., independently of the candidate, it seems that those doing so would be guilty of an illegal practice. If they pay or return their payments through the election agent, they constitute themselves agents ; their irregular acts, if by ignorance or zeal they committed any, would affect the election. It is true that a kind of " equity " clause is inserted, which enables the Election Court to disre- gard a trivial breach of the law by an agent, when the candi- date and his election agent are themselves free from guilt, and took all reasonable means to prevent it in others ; or even an important breach, when it was due to ignorance or inadvert- ence. But this clause may too probably rather take effect in making the sword of Justice uncertain in its stroke on the guilty, than in affording a certain shield for the innocent. It is probable, therefore, that the work of party organisations will be confined to getting and keeping the party together in non-election times, and the choice of candidates, rather than to helping candidates by canvassing in an election. The tendency will be, and indeed it ought to be, for candidates to look rather to speeches at public meetings and addresses in the Press, than to any system of canvassing. They will have to rely for winning the seat not on any craftily-organised system Qof begging or bribing voters, but on the real enthusiasm of the party for the principles they profess, and on their own enthusiasm and power in advocating them.
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