I would suggest that all canvassing be prohibited—you want to get at the public opinion of the borough, and that you do not obtain when you extort a promise from a voter who has no definite opinion himself. Public meetings and an advertisement or circular should be sufficient; but there are many voters who will not take the trouble to attend, and a public meeting, even if enthusiastic, is no criterion of what the vote will be. It is easy to get up a public meeting if a candidate will go to the necessary expense; and it is easier still to spoil one if the opposition committee can secure the services of a few roughs or an Irishman or two. Democratic Socialists I also found very efficient in that way, unable as they would have been to carry a candidate, or to hold a public meeting themselves. One of the funniest performances was, after you had had your say, to reply to the questions. As a rule, the questioner thinks chiefly of himself. He likes the sound of his voice, and he sits down with a self-satisfied smile—if he be an old hand—as if he had made it self-evident that he knew a thing or two, and that he was not the sort of man you could make a fool of. But heckling, as it is called, is a science little understood. It is one of the fine arts. A candidate, for instance, likes to make a statement when he replies to a question. The questioner, if he is up to the mark, will gain a cheer, as he denounces all attempts at evasion, and demands a straightforward, Yes or No. A man asks you, for instance, Have you left off beating your wife yet? How are you to answer Yes or No in such a case? As a rule, the questioners are poor performers, and ask you what no one need ask who hears a candidate’s speech, or reads his programme. One thing came out very clearly—that is, the terror platform orators, lay or clerical, have of any body calling itself a Liberal Association, whether it is really that or not. You can get any number of orators, on the condition that you have an association at your back. But they dare not otherwise lend you a helping hand. Liberalism is to have the stamp of Walbrook on it. It must be such as the wirepullers approve. I said to a Radical M.P.: “I am fighting a sham caucus.” “Ain’t they all shams?” was his reply. There is a danger in this; even though there are still men left in this age of mechanical organism who value the triumph of principles more even than that of party.