Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/136

 his profession are unlikely to afford; or he may be a wealthy man, moved by "a wish to garnish an acquired fortune with a little bit of ornamental dignity, or to lay the foundation of a successful career of tuft hunting." Money, however, finds its way to the hands of the agents—money which has apparently nothing to do with the expenses of the election, and does not even come, by any direct or traceable means, from the candidate. It happens, however, that the parlours and tap-rooms become wonderfully animated. More refreshments are consumed; and less is said about the payment. These convivialities have ostensibly nothing to do with the election. There is no mention of any such thing; they are all in the way of good-fellowship, and are matters into which nobody has any business to inquire. The time comes when the signal is to be given, and the curtain drawn. The election is at hand: the approach of a first-rate liberal or a conservative of the purest water has been darkly announced. Perhaps an address, inviting the distinguished individual to offer himself for the representation of the electoral district, is got up, presented, and graciously responded to; but whatever be the course adopted, when the word is given by the chief agents to their inferior auxiliaries, a simultaneous concert bursts forth in praise of the candidate elect, and if the game has been played with anything like skill and liberality, he has already made such progress towards success as to render it very difficult for any adversary to displace him. The various steps have been taken silently, and apparently without any plan or contrivance. Nobody knows how the candidate first came to be thought of. Nobody knows, of course, how the mantle happened to fall upon him, but the remarkable concurrence of opinion amongst so many persons, having no visible connection one with another, is to the simple-minded electors no small proof of his merits. It is easy to purchase the needful quantity of laudation and bluster. The hidden