as merely satisfying a burning desire
for rhetorical expansion, without any particular regard to accuracy of
statement. But the candidate himself greedily gulps that lump of
flattery, and all the praise which is the conventional sauce for every
political gander. On this he grows fat, and being, in addition, puffed
up by a very considerable conceit of his own, he eventually presents an
aspect which is not pleasing, and assumes (towards those who are not
voters in the Constituency) a manner which can scarcely be described as
modest.

The majority of his Constituents regard him simply as an automatic
machine for the regular distribution of large subscriptions. He regards
himself as a being of great importance and capacity, and endowed with
the power of acting as he likes, whilst the local wirepullers look upon
him as a convenient mask, behind which they may the more effectively
carry on their own petty schemes of personal ambition.

As a Candidate, moreover, the young M.P. will have discovered that the
triumph of his party depends not merely or even chiefly upon the due
exposition of those political principles with which he may have lately
crammed himself by the aid of a stray volume of MILL, and a _Compendium
of Political History_, but rather upon the careful observance of local
custom and local etiquette, and the ceaseless effort to trump his
adversary's every trick. He will thus have become the President of the
local Glee Club, the Patron of a Scientific Association, and a local Dog
Show, the Vice-President of four Cricket Clubs and of five Football
Clubs, a Member of the Committee of the Hospital Ball, and of the
Society for Improving the breed of Grey Parrots; to say nothing of the
Guild for Promoting the happiness of Middle-aged Housemaids, and the
local Association for the Distribution of Penny Buns, at cheap prices,
to the deserving poor. Moreover, before he has discovered the true
relation of benefit societies to politics, he will find himself a Member
of the Odd Fellows, the Foresters, the Hearts of Oak, the Druids, and
the Loyal and Ancient Order of Free and Accepted Buffaloes, with the
right, conferred by the last-named Society, of being addressed on lodge
nights as if he were a Baronet, or, at least, a Knight.

Having thus met and shaken hands with the working-man during his hours
of festive relaxation, the young M.P. will be properly qualified for
discussing those social questions which form the chief part