Its Perils.
But if the platform educates the voter, it has its dangers also. Bismarck is reported to have said that the qualities of the orator are not only unlike, but incompatible with, those of the statesman; and certainly the continual need of taking the public into one's confidence is hard to reconcile with the execution of far-reaching plans for the national welfare, for until the results are in sight, these cannot be made intelligible to the mass of the people. The English statesman is called upon at all times to show his hand, at the risk of seeming disingenuous or secretive if he does not do so. His whole policy is analysed and criticised; the seeds he plants are dug up prematurely to see if they are sprouting. Hence he is under a strong temptation to take a stand that will win immediately popular approval. In short, he lives in a glass house, which is likely to mean a very respectable but rather superficial life.
Moreover, in the custom of speaking from the platform there lurks a danger to the system of cabinet government; for that system is based upon the principle that the initiative in public policy rests with the ministers, and the main issue decided at a general election is whether the cabinet shall remain in power. Now ministers have not always been in the habit of arranging what shall be said upon the platform with the same care as what measures shall be brought before Parliament. But in view of the present importance of the platform it is obvious that if the cabinet system is to continue, the ministers must present a unanimous front to the public as well as to Parliament; and this consideration leads to a study of the function of party in the English political system.
FOOTNOTES:
[425:1] The six points were: universal suffrage, annual Parliaments, equal electoral districts, abolition of property qualification, vote by ballot, and payment of members. Of all these demands annual Parliaments and payment of members alone have not been substantially attained.
[425:2] "Latter Day Pamphlets: The Stump Orator," No. 5.
[426:1] E.g. Hans. 4 Ser. CXXXII., 1013-15; CXLI., 162.
[426:2] Ibid., CXXXI., 679; CXLVI., 987-89.