Southwark is still swamped with candidates. Mr. Bradlaugh has retired,
but Mr. Coningsby, an able man, not long ago a con- tributor to our own columns in the shape of some letters on the working-classes in America, has come forward, very injudiciously, as we think, and with very little consideration for Mr. Odger, who was long before him in the field and has the higher claim. Mr. Coningeby's excuse for further dividing the Liberal party seems to be that he does not appeal to the working-class only, as he implies that Mr. Odger does, but to the whole constituency, adding, however, parenthetically, that his experience as a working-man will be of service to him in Parliament if he is returned. Sir Sydney Waterlow makes precisely the same remark, intimating that he served hie apprenticeship for seven years in a mechanics' workshop, associating with them and understanding their habits. We cannot say we think that much to the point. What is needed in Parliament is a thorough and practical familiarity with the Trades' Unions, the benefit funds, the whole economical scheme of a working-man's life, and a mere seven years' apprenticeship to a mechanical art would not in any way give that. Sir Sydney Waterlow may get in for almost any constituency he pleases at the next election, and unless he has much better evidence than we believe he can have that Southwark will not bear a working-man, it is hardly generous in him to interfere with the fair chance which Southwark seems to afford for such a candidate's success ? How- ever, we cannot but admit that hitherto the householders of Eng- land have clearly expressed their dislike and contempt for candi- dates who in any sense belong to the class of receivers of weekly wages. How could a man degraded by weekly wages be an M.P., unless, indeed, M.P. is to stand for Mean Politician ? There is no more thorough slave of caste than the British householder.
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