Statesmen, moreover, have often lost their seats merely because they
have endeavoured to give electors of their very best. When Mr. John
Morley (now Lord Morley of Blackburn), during the election of 1906,
received a deputation of Socialists, he, with characteristic courage,
explained very frankly the ground on which he could not support their
principles.[3] A similar candour on his part in 1895 cost him his seat
at Newcastle. Can we wonder then that there arise complaints that our
statesmen are deficient both in courage and in ideas? Single-member
constituencies are, as Gambetta pointed out more than twenty years ago,
inimical to political thinking, and recent General Elections have
afforded numerous examples in support of this statement. The courageous
and forcible presentment of ideas has time after time been rewarded by
exclusion from the House of Commons.

_Degradation of party strife._

There is a further and equally serious charge that can be laid against
the existing electoral system--it is in no small measure responsible for
that increasing degradation in the methods of warfare which has
characterised recent political and municipal contests. This debasement
of elections cannot fail to contribute to that undermining of the
authority of the House of Commons, upon which stress has already been
laid. Indeed, there is abundant evidence to show that in conjunction
with the imaginary instability of the electorate, the debasement of
elections is weakening the faith of many in representative institutions.
An efficient bureaucracy is now being advocated by a writer so
distinguished as Mr. Graham Wallas, as the best safeguard against the
excesses of an unstable and ignorant democracy. There is no need to
undervalue the importance of competent officials, but all experience has
shown the equal necessity of an adequate check upon the bureaucracy,