METROPOLITAN ELECTIONS.
AN election for a metropolitan borough has become a word of fear unpleasing to the ears of those who wish well to the liberal cause. Even where the choice of the electors falls on a candidate to whom no positive objection can fairly be taken, he has been of late but too often recommended to them chiefly by the possession of extraordinary, wealth. The, selection of the member has fallen practically into the hands of a small knot of persons interested in the lavish expendi- ture which custom imposes on the aspirant for Parliamentary honours. Their zeal is stimulated by cupidity, and their organization gives them strength ; while the mass of the electors look on in apathy until the time for profitable exer- tion at least seems to have slipped by. Tinder this system, which the dominant clique fosters for its own advantage, the costs of a contest have swollen, until it has almost come to this, that to contest Marylebone or Lambeth a man should be either reckless or a millionnaire. Satisfactory candidates for a position, which should be one of peculiar weight and importance even in the House of Commons itself, are scarcely to be found, and twenty thousand voters send forth as their representative some merchant, banker, or manufacturer utterly unknown to the country as a politician, whose age, habits, and previous occupations unfit him for taking a pro- minent part in discussion, and who, while he swells the number, adds nothing to the prestige of his party.
It will be well to look a little closer into the system by which so discreditable a result has been reached. It is not that direct corruption of the electors either is or could be practised. The expenditure is all strictly legal, or at least is such as no legislation can control. If the election be contested—and when is it not ?—the cost of the necessary hustings alone amounts to no trifling sum. In any case a rigid etiquette requires that a circular should be sent to every elector, requesting the honour of his vote and interest, and reminding him what is his number on the register, and at what polling-booth he is to vote—information which he could in all probability obtain without the slightest difficulty for himself. Let us for a moment pause, and realize the cost of this latter item alone. In Lambeth, for instance, the number of electors on the register is over twenty-two thousand. Twenty-two thousand circulars, at twopence each, will cost more than 1801.; even the addressing of the enve- lopes, at 18s. 6d. per thousand, the regular stationer's charge, amounts to no less than 201.; and the mere postage will exceed 901. Add to this innumerable placards and bill- stickers. From ten to thirty public-houses must be hired under the name of committee-rooms. The voter, who, if he were on his own private business, would certainly walk the half mile to the hustings and save the expense of an omnibus, is constrained by an ungovernable impulse to be carried to the poll in a cab, and to pay the cabman at least twice his legal fare. If to all these items be added canvassers whose zeal leads them from house to house, pointing out the candi- date's merits to each elector for a consideration, it will not be hard to understand why prudent men shrink from what is no longer a contest of principles but of purse. So long as this system is permitted to continue, so long as the practical management of elections is abandoned by the independent voters to a league of publicans, attorneys, cab-masters, and canvassers, the metropolitan constituencies must continue to be rather a hindrance than a support to the cause to which they are sincerely attached. Yet it is a system by which the clique alone gains, and the constituencies are in- variably losers. In vain do they complain that they have not that *eight in the House of Commons to which their population, wealth, and intelligence entitle them. To re- present a great mass of his fellow-countrymen adds weight to the words of a man of shining abilities and extensive political knowledge : it does but render the absent* of these qualifications the more conspicuous. The House will not con- sent to regard its members as mere delegates, and a candidate must bring much to a constituency before he can receive anything from it. On the other hand, his merits are reflected on those who choose him. It is a system of give and take. Sir William Molesworth did as much for Southwark as Southwark did for Sir William, but what can Finsbury do for Mr. Co; or Mr. Cox for Finsbury ?
And yet the last contest for Finsbury is among the most hopeful of recent metropolitan contests, for the first step to reform is that the electors should take the election into their own hands. Any candidate is the best who sets the example of appealing from the ruling clique to the main body of the voters, and makes them understand that under the esta- blished routine they in reality sell themselves for a circular and a cab. Once reach the popular ear and the struggle is at an end. Great masses of men can only be roused by an appeal to their more generous feelings, and however liable they may be to mistake bluster for ability, and loud profes- sions for patriotism, Mr. Cox has conclusively shown, what perhaps Mr. Layard had sirffiniently proved before, that mere wealth appeals to them in vain. It is a still more encourag- ing sign that an influential body of the electors of Lambeth have selected a gentleman of advanced liberal views, and have determined on conducting his election themselves on econo- mical principles. While different politicians are coquetting with the constituency for their support, no inconsiderable pro- portion of the expense is usually incurred, and they have there- fore fixed on the first eligible candidate who presented him- self, simply because they are determined to obviate the ne- cessity for the customary lavish expenditure. If these pro- fessions are adhered to, a great advance will have been made in the right direction. Let the metropolitan constituencies once make it clear to politicians of but moderate fortune that it is possible to ask for their suffrages without an extra- vagant outlay, and with a reasonable prospect of success, and there will be no lack of candidates of a very different stamp to those who ordinarily compete for their favour, and who have already earned a reputation which entitles them to support. It however, the metropolitan boroughs -would redeem their reputation, and even the position to which they are fairly entitled, they must go still further than they have as yet shown any disposition to do, and return their members free of expense. They have long demanded that members of Parliament should be paid a salary from the Exchequer,i ha order that their choice may be unhampered, and no maul of talents be excluded from political life by reason of his poverty. It may, perhaps, be reasonably doubted, whether I any one of sufficient abilities to make him a useful states man will ever find it difficult to earn an income which will afford him a subsistence at least as ample as any it can ever be expected that he should derive from the public purse. But, if this be their opinion, let the large boroughs, in common consistency, abstain from levying on their repre- sentatives this enormous entrance fee, which effectually de- bars all but the very richest members of the community from seeking their favour. What politician, however poor, has at any time refused to enter Parliament on the ground that there was no salary attached to the position ? Mr. Bernal Osborne is certainly not a poor man, but he has very recently declined to contest Marylebone. A tax which crushes an individual is but a trifle to be raised by subscrip- tion among constituencies so numerous and wealthy as those of the metropolitan boroughs. Sheffield has long since set them a good example, and has returned Mr. Roebuck more than once without calling on him for a shilling. If the me- tropolis would be worthily represented, let it follow the precedent. It is not to be expected that politicians of the highest rank will ever seek the suffrages of very large constituencies. They are too much occupied to be able to attend to the vast amount of private business which such a position brings with it. But younger men, who have devoted themselves to politics under the influence of an overpowering predilection, and who have already distinguished themselves by their writings or speeches, might fairly expect that the large con- stituencies would afford to them that entrance into public life which more favoured competitors owe to large domains or a partial patron. Mr. Layard, the choice of Southwark, is a good specimen of this sort of man; the late Sir William Molesworth was another. And a connection of this sort formed in early life has sometimes been protracted long after the public engagements of the statesman have compelled him to throw the weight of the private business of the consti- tuency on the shoulders of his colleague. Such a fidelity is as honourable to the electors as, unfortunately, it is rare. But it would certainly be more common if they would invite a better class of candidates to come forward, by themselves setting the example of that disinterestedness which they have a right to requite. It is neither reasonable nor even safe to expect members of Parliament only to make pecuniary sacrifices. Those who buy a seat in the House are very apt to think of it as a piece of private property, and to endeavour to make what was gained by jobbery- a stepping- stone for their own advancement. The regeneration of the Liberal peaty must commence with the electors, and the means to it are economy and purity of election. Let us hope that Lambeth is about to set an example which in all future me- tropolitan contests will be scrupulously followed.
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