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 least one was elected. In Fulham, Bethnal Green, and probably other unions there were ex-officers amongst the candidates. The question of their eligibility or otherwise was put before the Local Government Board, who declined to give an opinion. The position is, however, a somewhat difficult one. The best qualified officers are not, as a rule, those who are the first to be retired, and it may happen that an officer who has been retired for incompetence or other reasons may return to the control of the very institutions which he has been considered unfit to manage, and all sorts of personal friction may be the result. In any case, he may be put into the somewhat invidious position of signing cheques for his own salary.

It is not, of course, intended to suggest in what has been said that none of those who come forward at these elections are qualified for the position. On the contrary, there are many who are fully qualified in every way, and are doing excellent service. The general standard, however, is not a high one, and they work as a rule under extreme difficulties. They have, it is true, often an influence disproportionate to their numbers, but the advocacy of economic doctrines is unpalatable to the caucuses, and their position is at all times precarious. They find considerable difficulty in obtaining election; every three years they are liable to be unseated, and many of them have met with that fate. They are as a rule elected in spite of their opinions rather than because of them. Their appearance is accidental, and in spite of the system rather than because of it.

Another difficulty that they encounter is in the changed action of the Local Government Board. There was a time when they could have looked to it for support in the maintenance of principles which the Board itself has repeatedly recognised. Now