Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/199

 among the latter a wealthy alderman, about whom Mr. Dale tells with glee how he described one of his special expositions of Christian truth as "a brilliant farrago of democratic nonsense."

And this has struck me as a peculiar feature of Birmingham Radicalism. It is intense, without being bitter or personally rancorous. It may be different in the actual throes of an election contest, which I have never witnessed; but ordinarily there is a gratifying exhibition of mutual respect among political opponents. There is, at all events in the Dale family, a kindly tendency to regard a Tory as an "undeveloped Liberal," who will do better by and by. The political evangel, like the religious, is not completely closed to any.

I shall never forget my first impression of the Dale household. A ward election was impending at the time; and Mrs. Dale, a lady not less remarkable than her husband for vigor of mind and public spirit, was in the thick of it canvassing the women electors, note-book in hand, as if the salvation of the borough depended on the issue. I had always regarded canvassing as more or less demoralizing work; but it depends largely on the spirit in which it is conducted. Mrs. Dale was a model canvasser, using no argument—even with the most ignorant—which did not appeal to their better reason. The result was mutually beneficial. The accomplished lady had her sympathies with the poor braced, and her knowledge of their wants extended; while her less fortunate sisters had their political education, to some extent at least, improved by coming in contact with a superior mind. The interest taken in politics by the youngest members of the family, hardly in their teens, would have been comical if it had not been so genuine and intelligent.