LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
LIBERAL ORGANISATION IN BRIGHTON.
[To TDB EDITOR OF T2 E " SPECTATOR."
Sta,—Since Mr. Romer's lamentable but not inglorious defeat,. we have been getting into working order an elaborate and magnificent machinery, partly administrative, partly educa- tional, and wholly democratic, whereby we hope to force back the current of evil consequences, of which we ourselves are partly the cause. Without needlessly entering into points of mere mechanical detail, it may be said that next to the Presi- dent, the thirteen District Chairmen will be the most important people in the new organisation. They will have to superintend the work done by the delegates, or section officers. They will allot to each delegate a group of nine subscribers, who, in accordance with the principle of the old Saxon tithing and frank-pledge, will, in subordination to the delegate, endeav- our, by discreet house-to-house visitations, to ascertain and bend in the right direction the views of the great mass of apathetic neutral electors. The District Chairmen will review the proceedings of the sections, and will transmit occa- sional reports thereof to the central office of the executive. They will also exercise peculiar responsibilities under Clause 6, which is certainly not the least interesting of the many clauses of that excellent constitution, for which we owe a debt of gratitude to- the "Abbe Sieyes " of Sussex, the universally-respected Mr. Hallett. This clause provides that, after the annual election of delegates in the district committees, if at any time of the year a man wishes to be a member of the Council, all he has to do is to go about and, in some way or other, induce nine other persons to join his district committee, and agree amongst themselves that he should be their delegate. The agreement having been effected, he straightway steps on to the Council, by a sort of self-acting
process, provided he obtains a certificate from his district chairman -that not only he himself, but also his nine other consenting and subscribing members fulfil the indispensable condition of being true Liberals. If the Chairman, or in his absence the Vice- Chairman, puts his veto upon the proposed arrangement, then such veto, being only provisional, has to be confirmed by the district committee. As regards subscriptions, they are fixed for ordinary members as low as sixpence a quarter; and the working-men, both electors and non-electors, by subscribing in large numbers, have evinced a spirit of loyalty to the -cause and of self-sacrifice which cannot be too highly com- mended. The district chairmen will be ex-officio members of the council, and also of the executive; and from each little township there must be at least one on the governing body, besides the chief officer.
The order of business on the 26th inst. will probably be as follows :—After the formal election of President, and General "Treasurer, and after the thirteen District Chairmen have taken their seats on the platform, the delegates from each district will arrange themselves into groups, and choose, by ballot, a second man to form the necessary quota of two. There will -then remain, in order to constitute the executive of thirty, the -ex-officio members, seventeen persons to be elected, either by screitin de hate, or cumulative or uninominal voting, from -the whole body of the delegates then assembled. The first meeting of the executive will be held shortly afterwards,—it is to be hoped not on the 1st of April ! Upon the President and some of the district chairmen, especially in the west part of Brighton, 'which has its separate, beautifully-proportioned town-hall, will -also devolve the delicate task—which, when fulfilled without tact, or even generosity, produces legitimate heartburnings- of arranging for lectures and addresses, and of assigning the platform speakers on great occasions. And in connection with the question of addresses, which are to be given all over Brighton, it may, perhaps, be suggested that their effect will be to diminish, rather than increase, the number of crotcheteers. Tor surely, under this reproachful designation cannot be in- cluded one who is in favour of woman suffrage, or Disestablish- meat, or abolition of compulsory vaccination, or constitutional Home-Rule. A person may hold fast to one or all of these ideas, and more besides of the same character, and yet not be crotchety, provided he calmly regards them in their proper relation with -other objects more speedily realisable, provided he duly culti- -vates a sense of what may be termed political perspective, and provided he does not worry his Member or candidate with test interrogatories on matters not yet ripe for legislative settlement. ,Only when a man allows one or two political questions to -obsess the understanding, to dominate the mind to the exclusion -of others more important because more pressing, then, and then only, does the principle, aim, or aspiration degenerate into a craze ; then, and then only, does the Opportunist Radical Reformer become merged in the vain, shallow-brained theorist, 'or the morally plague-stricken crotcheteer.—I am, Sir, etc.,
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