326 MODERN POLITICS 



curiosity is aroused if brothers differ widely in 

 their politics. The transfer of votes which turns 

 out a government occurs for the most part amongst 

 the working classes, and in greatest measure, it 

 may be suspected, amongst the least intelligent of 

 their ranks. To these men party rivalries are of no 

 serious interest. It ^pleases them; to be on the 

 winning side, and they will vote for the party 

 which is shown by the trend of the contest to have 

 the best chance of victory. Moreover, they are 

 apt to be misled by an incorrect connection of 

 happenings as cause and effect, in the light of 

 which the party in office appears to blame for 

 anything that disturbs the regularity of life, 

 whether it be a rainy summer or a rise in prices. 

 There is, further, an instinctive desire for change 

 which gradually undermines the credit of a 

 government with those who are not bound to 

 it by feelings of allegiance. Accordingly, from 

 the day on which a ministry takes office a muti- 

 nous spirit begins to show itself amongst such of 

 its supporters as are not pledged to it by family 

 habit or by sentimental loyalty ; and these 

 people, when a general election comes round, are 

 ready to lay hold of any handle against it, unless 

 their affections have been reattached by definite 

 promises of personal advantage or by such a 

 passionate interest as is excited by any question 

 of national prestige. It follows then, that the com- 

 plexion of the British Government is determined 

 by the least intelligent of British citizens. No 

 system could be worse in theory. Yet in practice 

 it works passably well. 



It is, then, a complicated assortment of 

 impulses which determines the voting of a par- 

 liamentary constituency. There is the respect 



