the same great Teutonic name, not young indeed in
years, but who might have gone fresh to Parliament as the University's
own choice, one whom it would have been worth some effort to keep within
the bounds of England and of Europe, one who to a list of "distinctions"
at least as long as that of the candidate actually chosen, added the
noblest distinction of all, that of having been, through a life of
varied experiences, the consistent and unflinching champion of moral
righteousness. I do not know that Mr. Goldwin Smith would have had a
greater chance--perhaps he might have had even less chance--of election
than Mr. H. J. S. Smith. But there would have been greater comfort in
manly defeat in open strife under such a leader than there could be in a
defeat which it had been vainly hoped to escape by a compromise on the
great moral question of the moment. The Oxford Liberals lost, and, I
must say, they deserved to lose. It is a great gain for an University
candidate to be "distinguished;" but one would think that it would
commonly be possible to find a "distinguished" candidate who is at once
"distinguished" and something better as well.

Still at Oxford in 1878 Mr. H. J. S. Smith was the accepted candidate of
the Liberal party, and in that character he underwent a crushing defeat.
It may be, or it may not be, that a candidate of more decided principles
would have gained more votes than the actual candidate gained; he
certainly would not have gained enough to turn the scale. Mr. Smith was
defeated by a candidate who was utterly undistinguished; and who,
instead of simply halting, like Mr. Smith, between right and wrong, was
definitely committed to the cause of wrong. Mr. Talbot became member for
the University on the same principle on which Mr. Gladstone's successive
opponents were brought forward, the principle that anybody will do, if
only he be a Tory. Any stick is good enough to beat the Liberal dog.
When Toryism showed itself in its darkest colours, when it meant the
rule of Lord Beaconsfield, and when the rule of Lord Beaconsfield meant,
before all things, the strengthening of the power of evil in
South-Eastern Europe, a constituency, in which the clerical vote is said
to be decisive, preferred, by an overwhelming majority, the candidate
who most distinctly represented the bondage of Christian nations under
the yoke of the misbeliever. It is quite possible that crowds voted at
the Oxford election, as at other elections