WHAT MAKES A GOOD CANDIDATE.
TO sumtnarise the qualifications needful for success in political candidature is a task which may be safely essayed at the present juncture without the risk of incurring any suspicion of partisanship. Every one is agreed as to the qualities of the ideal modern candi- date. To start with, he should be a man of blameless character. He should be a man of independent means, to protect him from the charge of being a place-hunter, yet not so richly endowed with this world's goods as to be a target for the shafts of the anti-capitalist. He should be well-informed, industrious, accessible, and good-looking. He should have a silver voice, an iron constitution, and a thick skin,—even if it may not yet be necessary for him to have what the Irish Member declared to be essential to a Chief Secretary, "the heart of an ice- berg and the hide of a rhinoceros." He need not be a great orator, but he should be fluent, ready in retort, patient of interruption. He must be a patron of, if not actually proficient in, our two great national pastimes. And, above all, he must be a master of those minor dexterities of management for which opportunity is furnished in personal contact with the individual elector. He ought also, of course, by family, or residence, or calling, to be connected with the district he aspires to represent. But while it is easy to sketch the ideal candidate, few politicians are found who realise in mind and person the conjunction of qualities enumerated above, while many achieve success in spite of the lack of what might appear to be the most essential requirements. Wilkes was not handsome ; Sheil had a squeaky voice ; Lord Randolph Churchill lacked equanimity ; and Mr. Chamberlain, as he has often con- fessed, has never taken any interest in athletic exercises. And while these limitations do not preclude success, great and solid endowments are often no guarantee of recognition by the electorate. The late Mr. Walter Bagehot, a man of extraordinary all-round capacity as well as the highest integrity, was a complete failure as a political candidate. Indeed, a most curious record might be made of the ineffectual descents of genius into the political arena. The failure of the intellectual candidate is best accounted for by the phrase applied by one of the most distinguished literary politicians of the day to the case of Robespierre,—" the unhappy doctrinaire immersed in the intricacy of practice." A man who has led the vita urnbratilis, the cloistered life of the student, is ill at ease when he exchanges his seclusion for the cockpit of contending factions. He is like the bookish boy plunged into the rough-and-tumble of the school playground. Con- fidence in his own ability does not mend matters, for while constituencies are tolerant of many things, they seldom endure consciousness of mental ability unless it is reinforced by achievement in the world of action. Even in an academic constituency the academic candidate is at a disadvantage. But while the purely literary man seldom shines on the political platform, it by no means follows that those who live by their pen make bad candi- dates. On the contrary, we are inclined to think that the successful modern novelist enters on a political cam- paign with many positive advantages. He is almost of necessity a travelled personage, and his conscien- tious quest of local colour from China to Peru has probably implanted in him a sense of our Imperial responsibilities. He is pretty certain to have explored the slums, and to have made himself familiar with the various forms of philanthropic enterprise. Finance, "combines," "corners," company promotion,—all come within his extensive view. The modern novelist, in short, is as hypothesi omniscient : having largely usurped the function of the dramatist, the preacher, the pamphleteer, and the historian, he is bound to know a good deal about everything, from metaphysics and the higher criticism to the manufacture of tin-tacks or the methods of pilchard fishing. Take the question of the housing of the poor, and where could you find a better expert than Mr. Arthur Morrison ? Or if agricultural depression were the theme of discussion, who would be better fitted to serve on a Committee than Mr. Rider Haggard ? Outside the ranks of trained engineers, who would be better equipped to assist the inquiry into the efficiency of machinery— say, water-tube boilers—than Mr. Kipling ? Lastly, for sane, stimulating, and businesslike criticism of our military system, where can we look even among Ser- vice Members for a better and sounder critic than Dr. Conan Doyle, whose admirable article on the lessons of the war we refer to in another column ? We are very far from contending that the ability to produce a popular novel is a guarantee of Parliamentary capacity. But we assert without fear of contradiction that the preparation involved in the writing of a serious novel dealing with the social problems of the hour constitutes a far better claim to the confidence of the electorate than the equipment of the company promoter or the professional politician.
Experience clearly shows that the ideal candidate is not always a good candidate. The late Professor Henry Smith was an ideal candidate for Oxford University,— regarded in racuo. But his high character, his great accomplishments, and his wit were powerless to effect the conversion of the reactionary non-residents. And again, the good candidate—in the sense of the man of weight who inspires respect—is not always the winning candi- date. Still, even if we narrow the term " good " down to its electioneering as opposed to its ethical content, it stands for certain qualities which are by no means un- deserving of admiration. Courage, consistency, sincerity. never fail to impress a political audience. Volubility often begets distrust : indeed, we feel convinced that the prolix manifestoes of the present campaign are a tactical blunder, as well as an indication of uncertainty. Nowhere is the saying that brevity is the soul of wit truer than in regard to an election address ; and for one elector who has the patience to wade through Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman's interminable tractate, twenty will prefer to master the contents of Lord Rosebery's short letter to Captain Lambton. But for what may be called electoral style the best model is John Bright, who managed to compress the maximum of significance within the limits of a letter not more than twenty lines long. As Mr. Bright said himself, "I deal in no extravagance of language, but state the case in simplicity and, I hope, with clearness." How accurate was his description will be admitted when we recall such phrases as "My sympathy for Ireland was not born of faction, and in a struggle for office and pay and power " ; or "Justice to Ireland requires not only that the laws should be just, but that they should be obeyed"; or that wonderful description of Mr. Parnell, in October, 1887 :—" At present he sulks and skulks in Avondale, and keeps silence amid the tumult he has done so much to create, while his lieutenants keep the rebellion pot boiling in three of the provinces of Ireland." The manifesto writer of to-day, on the other hand, often sug- gests the literary hack who is under contract to produce so many thousand words.
There is lastly one quality required in the modern can- didate, the demand for which has grown out of the altered conditions of modern electioneering. He must not merely satisfy the electors : he must win the approval of their womankind. Alike as speakers, canvassers, and workers, women now play an extremely energetic and efficient part in determining the results of a campaign, and whatever views may be held on the subject of their claims to the suffrage, it will be generally admitted that the keener interest which they take in the choice of a candidate is a satisfactory sign of the times. We do not assert that they are now entirely impervious to those minor flatteries which Dickens satirised in his pictures of the Eatanswill election, but we are inclined to believe that the more active part taken by women in electioneering exerts an elevating influence on the moral atmosphere of political life. The entrance of women into the political arena has certainly inclined the balance in favour of the candidate whose character inspires more confidence.
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