Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/280

264 certain letters or other signs to be used in his own private copy attached to the names of the clerical voters. These should indicate—

Possessed of a full knowledge of all these circumstances, a paragraph in a newspaper regretting the alarming state of health of some eminent divine will frequently decide the oscillation even of a cautious voter.

This dodge is the more easily practised because some eminent divines, on the approach of an university election, occasionally become ill, and even take to their bed, in order to avoid the bore of being canvassed, or of committing themselves until they see "how the land lies."

The motives which induce men to act upon election committees are various. The hope of advancement is a powerful motive. It was stated to me by some of my committee, that every really working member of the committee which a few years before had managed the election of Copley for the University of Cambridge had already been rewarded by place or advancement.

My two most active lieutenants in the two contests for Cambridge, to which I have referred, were not neglected. One of them shortly after became a Master in Chancery, and the other had a place in India, producing £10,000 a year.