Probably the delay caused by the necessity for awaiting the
votes of the absent millions was the true came of last Saturday's dull- ness. The Englishman, with his sporting instinct for a contest, wants to know the result forthwith. If the polls had been declared the same night, he would have been keenly interested. The old ritual, with the Mayor's declaration of the figures, the successful candidate shaking hands with his beaten rival, and the inevitable speech of thanks to a cheering crowd in the dark street, was amusing in itself. But watching an election, the result of which is not to be known for a fortnight, is like watching men fire a gun at a hidden objective ten miles away over the hills. Of course we shall hear the election results in due course, whereas the effect of a shot from a heavy " may never be known to the gun-crew. Still, the immediate sense of balked curiosity is very much the same in both cases.
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