COUNTY CONSTITUENTS.
THE "country gentleman," as represented by some of his order in a recent correspondence in the Times, is disgusted with politics. Modern legislation has made life —his life, that is—hardly worth living. " Politics " have done it, and he will have no more part in them. It was not enough that he paid 9d. in the pound income-tax for property bringing in no more than that for which his neighbour the stock-holder pays a paltry 6d. The grievances of the Ground-Game Act had not been for- gotten before he was called upon to pay tithe instead of his tenant ; and now he lumps together tax, tithe, and rabbits, and, weighing them in one hand and " politics " in the other, he has decided to efface himself in the political struggle, and writes to the Times to say so. Mr. Snodgrass, on a memorable occasion, announced before taking off his coat that he was going to begin. The "country gentleman" has, with equal consideration, given warning to the county that he is going to leave off. " Armiger Salopiensis " and others of his class have said "good-bye for ever" to county elections, and have recorded in print that their resolution is final, that it is "for ever," and that county candidates must look for no help from them in the hard times to come.
There are many good reasons for thinking that this is a mere passing phase of feeling, and that the "winter of their discontent" will not endure. It is, of course, open to the country gentlemen to sulk in their tents, and to declare that they will not play any longer when they do not win all the points in the game. But there are many plain reasons for thinking that they cannot afford to do anything of the kind. These are not the times when any class can safely withdraw into a back-water and watch the flood roll by. Wiser counsels will no doubt prevail, even if the correspondents of the Times represent a majority, which is unlikely, or even a considerable minority, of their class. A far more important consideration in the coming county elections is the marked reluctance of candi- dates of standing and position to face the strain and worry of county elections under the new conditions caused by the extension of the franchise. It is said that at least a hundred Members of the present Parliament do not intend again to seek election, and that in the majority of cases the reason is to be sought, not in any decline of prestige in the social position of Members of the Lower House, or in the duties of the House itself, though these have yearly increased in severity and number, but in the physical and mental wear-and-tear which a contested elec- tion in a county district now entails. In the old days, a county election was a costly but not a dangerous excite- ment. If the candidate was moderately popular, a careful canvasser, and not averse to spending money, he could, with the support of the landed interest, hope to win his seat with no undue expenditure of time or brains. Once established, he need concern himself little with his constituency until the next dissolution condemned him anew to a few weeks' further excitement, the hustings, and a flying round of personal visits to friends and supporters. But now the times are altered. Before the elections and after, the County Member has to work harder than a bagman, almost as hard as a Bishop. "Yeoman and Squire and Knight of the Shire" would never be classed together now in the category of rural happiness. Wooing or won, the county constituencies are ever exacting and importunate. The "domestic" duties of the happy Mem- ber grow yearly more irksome as the pressure of real Parliamentary business increases. As the social prestige of mere birth in the new democracy grows less, so the prestige of Parliamentary and political position grows greater in the eyes of rural society. No church or chapel bazaar, or friendly society's anniversary dinner, or com- mercial travellers' club, or cricket dinner, not to mention more aristocratic social events, is complete unless the "Member" attends and delivers a speech. The presence of the Member's wife is often desired not less urgently ; and these invitations soon take the form of requests, not to comply with which is matter for resentment and requital. It is weary work at any time, and as country life is far more organised in all social matters than it was, these calls do not tend to diminish in number, and consti- tute a pretty drain on the energies of the representa- tive, which cannot fail to tell when summed up with the crowning demands of the contested election. The reports of the work done in recent contests only give a faint indication of the strain and stress caused by a modern county contest. We read of rival bands of Members of Parliament posting down to support candidates, of meetings by the hundred, and votes of confidence or the reverse. But the pettiness and meagreness of the audiences to whom all this fervent rhetoric is addressed is naturally not prominent in the accounts of their outpourings. Nearly every village now expects to be addressed by the candidate personally. If not, it is always open to the other side to suggest that that particular community has been slighted and forgotten; and there are plenty of fussy busybodies, small local solicitors or shopkeepers, ready to keep the candidate up to the mark if he shows any dis- position to overlook the particular village in which they are of local consequence. The result is, that rural audiences have become very nice in their criticism of political oratory. The taste, no less than the con- venience of the audiences, must be consulted. Not only must Short Muggleton have its separate meeting as well as Long Muggleton, but the subject-matter of the speeches delivered at each must be different. Stock speeches will not be listened to. They have "read it all before in the paper." " Impromptu " speeches, unless carefully prepared, are not acceptable either, and suggest unfavourable comparisons with the oratory of the local preacher. Only jokes are allowed to be repeated. "Give us some of your jokes now," was the demand of a West- Country audience which had listened without much im- patience to a careful analysis of Mr. Balfour's Land Bill. "Which jokes ? " inquired the weary candidate. "Some of your regular jokes," was the reply ; "some of them you made at —." Like a wise candidate, he accepted the invitation and reproduced them. But, as a rule, each village resents the notion of listening to what was con- sidered good enough for the next parish, and the "growing interest in politics" of the rural voters could hardly be satisfied by the resources of a Gladstone in rhetoric, or a Macaulay with the pen. In by-elections, Members of Parliament who have personal knowledge of the physical and mental strain involved in a county contest, show most praiseworthy zeal in coming down to aid by personal effort and exertions. But in a General Election these gentlemen are necessarily engaged in looking after their own seats. In this connection it may be noticed that the "country gentlemen" some of whom have now announced their intention of cold-shouldering " politics " altogether, have been, as a rule, very far from taking that active and personal share in the labours of preparation and combat which the ceaseless demands made upon the solitary candidate make so necessary. If hospitality in profusion, with plenty of gold and silver plate, and a com- mand of carriages and quarters when travelling, were the only form of assistance needed to sustain the strength of a county candidate, there would be little to complain of. But it is said that actual attendance at political meetings, and the social functions before enumerated as falling to the candidate's lot, are considered by their influential sup- porters to be of subordinate importance, and are, as a rule, more or less neglected. If this be the case, the abstention of the "country gentleman" from " politics " will be less felt than might be supposed. These difficulties, augmented by distance and want of communication over large and scattered districts, are not lightened by the stimulus found by borough candidates for large, well-organised constitu- encies, in addressing numerous and enthusiastic audiences. As a rule, the county candidate has nothing to evoke the magnetic sympathy engendered between speaker and hearers in the thronged and ardent meetings of great towns. Too often the candidate drives some dozen or fifteen miles, and arrives, cramped, fagged, and weary, to address a coldly critical audience of perhaps twice that number of labourers and a few farmers in a barn, who look upon him and his remarks as matter calculated to while away time which might, after all, have been spent more agreeably in the village inn or at market.
No doubt the present temper of rural constituencies is in a period of transition. In time they will learn, as the Irish peasants, with their quick instinct for modern political warfare, learnt long ago, that political meetings gain in effect largely in proportion to their size, and may organise those "magnificent demonstrations" which are the joy of American caucuses and Home-rule organisers, and last, but not least, of weary and worn-out candidates, who can say with effect, and once for all, what otherwise has to be dribbled out to a hundred petty audiences. But the time for this has not yet come. Nor is it likely that a "Truce of God" will be proclaimed by which, in the Middle Ages, warring factions bound themselves to abstain from warfare for certain days. But one practical conclusion cannot be avoided in reference to the coming General Election. As things are what they are, and the county electors will have their way, suitable candidates must be found who can do what they want. It is clear that the strain is one which demands not only mental but physical qualifications of a high order. Neither the men who have " nursed " constituencies hitherto with care and. consideration, nor young men who possess the necessary qualifications of " go " and endurance, must be discouraged. The battle this time is to the "strong," in the literal sense of the word ; and when men of the physique and vigour of Sir Richard Temple are said to declare the effort too great to be repeated, the scruples and cavillings of local election agents in favour of vested interests and prescriptive rights will hardly bear con- sideration.
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