at the next election.
He fought and won the seat as an Independent. At the second election
of 1910 he declined to stand, having lucidly explained to the House
of Commons in a final speech that a seat there was of no value under
the existing system.

Thus Belloc's own experience, and a thousand other things, went to
prove the stranglehold the rulers of the party had on the party. But
did it prove, or did the book establish, the theory of a
behind-scenes conspiracy between the small groups who controlled each
of the great historical parties, which was the theme not only of _The
Party System_ but also of Belloc's brilliant political novels--
notably _Mr. Clutterbuck's Election_ and _Pongo and the Bull?_

Of the stranglehold there was no doubt and Gilbert soon found it too
much for his own allegiance to the Liberal Party or any other. At the
election of 1910, he addressed a Liberal meeting at Beaconsfield and
dealt vigorously with constant Tory questions and interjections from
the back of the hall. He obviously enjoyed the fight and a little
later he spoke for the "League of Young Liberals" and was
photographed standing at the back of their van. But although he went
to London to vote for John Burns in Battersea and would probably have
continued to vote Liberal or Labour, he showed at a Women's Suffrage
meeting in 1911 a growing scepticism about the value of the vote. He
was reported as saying, "If I voted for John Burns now, I should not
be voting for anything at all (laughter)."

It must have been irritating that this interpolation "laughter" was
liable to occur when Chesterton was most serious; he did not change
quickly but in the alteration of his outlook towards his party, his
growing doubt whether it stood for any real values, he was very
serious. In the years that followed the coming into power of
Liberalism there were a multitude of Acts described as of little
importance and passed into law after little or no discussion. At the
same time, private members complained that they could get no
attention for really urgent matters of social reform. The _Nation_,
as a party paper, defended the state of things and talked of official
business and of want of time. Their attitude was vigorously attacked
by Gilbert, whose first letter (Jan. 17, 1911) ended with this
paragraph:

Who ever dreamed of getting "perfect freedom and fulness of
discussion" except in heaven? The case urged against Cabinets is
that we have n