The writ, it was understood, would be issued on the following Wednesday week, and the polling would take place upon Saturday, November 19; there was little time to lose. The dates and places of the principal meetings were rapidly arranged, the printers among whom work was to be distributed were carefully noted, the excellent organisation of the constituency had prepared him a numbered list of the electors who would expect a personal visit, and he received one morning by post the manifesto which had been drawn up at headquarters for him to sign.
Mr. Clutterbuck had signed this in his businesslike way and had left it for his secretary to post.
That gentleman came in from his usual morning spin in the green Darracq—the Napier he had slightly damaged some days before in attempting a group of oxen on Merstham hill. As he slowly mastered the few lines he began to shake his head solemnly and at last laid the document down, saying:
"It won't do as it is."
"You don't want me to add to it myself, Mr. Fitzgerald?" said Mr. Clutterbuck with an anxious look.
"N—no," said Fitzgerald, running his finger down the page.... "My point is ... there's something you got to add."
He read it again more closely, knitting his brows.
It was a straightforward bit of democratic pleading and clear, popular statement. It emphasised the importance to Great Britain of raising the price of Consols up to a standard level of seventy-five, of maintaining and if possible increasing the gold reserve so that the Bank rate should not rise above six per cent. for more than three months at one time; it declared strongly for the principle of female courts of justice, and supported the policy of the Government in its recent subsidies to the Grimsby fishing industry, the White Star Line, the Small Holders Capitalisation Association, the new "Eastern Counties Railway," and Lord Painton's Association for the Construction and Repair of English Canals.
Upon lesser matters it turned to criticise the woeful parsimony of the late administration, and contrasted the provision made for the fleet in the last National Budget with the Naval Estimates of 1908.
The document ended with a paragraph upon the Offences Disfranchisement Bill, which Charlie Fitzgerald read with close attention. It was as follows: