348 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



opponents predicted for it. The corruption, which in the United 

 States is commonly alleged to be largely due to the system, has not, 

 so far, been developed. The weak spot is the inducement which 

 the salary offers to the time-serving politician to strain his convic- 

 tions, rather than risk the loss of his seat, when it provides the 

 means of his subsistence. There have been men in the Parliament 

 of Victoria whose services could hardly be appraised in cash, men 

 who would have been worth in actual saving to the community 

 a retaining fee of 10,000 a year. But during the last quarter of a 

 century there have always been at least a score of mediocrities in 

 the House, who have been returned for some local reasons, or as 

 the result of organised wire-pulling men, too, frequently incapable 

 of initiative, and incompetent to give an intelligent opinion upon 

 questions of general polity coming before them. It might be 

 supposed that, with triennial elections, the undesirable and useless 

 element could be easily weeded out, and replaced by something 

 more competent.. But in practice it is found that the man in 

 possession has great advantages over the outsider. Even in 

 business, or in the Civil Service, it is notoriously difficult to get 

 rid of the merely inefficient ; and where there are many thousands 

 of masters in the guise of electors, it is only some very flagrant 

 case of wrong-doing that calls forth dismissal. Thus, taking the 

 contingent of mediocrities at the very modest estimate of a score, 

 the country has had to pay over 150,000 in salaries, perquisites 

 and free travelling, for services not only worthless, but harmful as 

 excluding men of higher capacity. The fact remains, that under 

 manhood suffrage the independent candidate who refuses to be 

 bound by the demands of some special class, or to adopt the entire 

 platform of a party organisation, has a remote chance of acceptance, 

 however brilliant his ability, or however profound his study of the 

 higher politics. His only opportunity in the future lies in the hope 

 that some day legislators may realise that votes should be weighed 

 rather than counted, or, failing that, in the adoption of a more 

 scientific system of taking the ballot, and the making the exercise 

 of the franchise compulsory. 



The construction and business control of the railway system 

 of Victoria by the Government is another experiment demanding 



