been of the slightest. The prestige of the Government is gone, and
prestige is as necessary to a Government as a majority. In brief, a
large majority strengthens a Government only in so far as that majority
corresponds to public opinion.

_Weakened personnel_.

Moreover, the extreme changes which take place at a General Election
often result in a considerable weakening of the personnel of the House
of Commons. In such a debacle as that which took place in 1906, there
was no process of selection by which the Unionists might have retained
the services in Parliament of their ablest members. Although there were
33,907 Unionists in Manchester and Salford, Mr. Balfour, the leader of
the party, experienced the mortification of being rejected by one of the
divisions. This failure was paralleled by the defeat of Sir William
Harcourt at Derby in 1895, whilst Mr. Gladstone, in contesting Greenwich
in 1874, only succeeded in obtaining the second place, the first seat
being won by a Conservative. A way is usually found by which party
leaders return without delay to the House of Commons, but there are
members of the highest distinction and capacity who, especially if these
qualities are associated with a spirit of independence, find, it
increasingly difficult to re-enter political life. Victory at the polls
depends not so much upon the services which a statesman, however
eminent, may have rendered to his country, as upon the ability of the
party to maintain its majority in the particular constituency for which
he stands. Indeed, in this matter a leader of opinion is placed at a
disadvantage as compared with an ordinary member of the party; his very
pre-eminence, his very activities bring him into conflict with certain
sections of the electorate which, insignificant in themselves, may yet
be sufficiently numerous to influence the result of an election.