d often enough been attacked for its
obvious defects and indeed the _New Witness's_ even livelier
contemporary _John Bull_ was shouting for its abolition. But Belloc
and Cecil Chesterton had their own line. Their general thesis was
that not only did the people of England not govern, Parliament did
not govern either. The Cabinet governed and it was chosen by the real
rulers of the party. For each party was run by an oligarchy, and run
roughly on the same lines. Lists were given of families whose
brothers-in-law and cousins (though not yet their sisters and their
aunts) found place in the Ministry of one or other political party.
Moreover, the governing families on both sides were in many cases
connected by birth or marriage and all belonged to the same social
set. But money too was useful: men could buy their way in. Each party
had a fund, and those who could contribute largely had of necessity
an influence on party policy. The existent Liberal Government had
brought to a totally new peak the art of swelling its fund by the
sale of titles: which in many instances meant the sale of hereditary
governing powers, since those higher titles which carry with them a
seat in the House of Lords were sold like the others, at a higher
rate naturally. For the rank and file member, a political career no
longer meant the chance for talents and courage to win recognition in
an open field. A man who believed that his first duty was to
represent his constituents stood no chance of advancement. Certainly
a private member could not introduce a bill as his own and get it
debated on its merits.

None of this was new, though the book did it rather exceptionally
well. What was new was the theory that the two party oligarchies were
secretly one, that the fights between the parties were little more
than sham fights. The ordinary party member was unaware of this
secret conspiracy between the leaders and would obey the call of the
party Whip and accept a sort of military discipline with the genuine
belief that the defeat of his party would mean disaster to his
country.

Belloc had discovered for himself the impotence of the private
member. He had, as we have seen, been elected to Parliament by South
Salford in 1906 as a Liberal. In Parliament he proposed a measure for
the publication of the names of subscribers to the Party Funds.
Naturally enough the proposal got nowhere. Also naturally enough the
Party Funds were not forthcoming to support him