I suppose in a certain sense every brief or retainer or notice of motion or summons for directions is an alarum, or alarm, or call to arms; and each appearance in Court is in the nature of an excursion. But I had in mind in choosing my title some of those occasions on which I was called away from the usual routine of my work to take up other affairs in some different part of the world.
And casting my glances back to my early days at the Bar, I remember, as though it were a fact in another person’s life, that I could never keep away from an election if there was one about, though I can be honestly thankful to-day that my young ambition to be one of the principals in such a contest was never granted to me.
One of the most stirring elections I played a part in was in the autumn of 1886, when I went down to Bristol to help Mr. Joseph Weston, to whom I acted as a sort of political secretary during the three weeks preceding the election. I am not
sure that I was not a corrupt practice or at least an illegal expense within the meaning of the Act, for no return was made about me in the election expenses. But I was really not a fighting unit, being only a personal intelligence department for Mr. Weston, and I sat in his drawing-room, which was papered with sketches and drawings of William Müller, many of which are now in public galleries, and there I watched the progress of the game, made notes of speeches, wrote letters, held conferences with my chief, and in leisure moments studied the methods of one of the greatest water-colour painters of the English School.
Sir Joseph Weston, as he afterwards became, was a well-known and popular citizen. Born in 1822, he had, with his father before him, been engaged in the hardware and iron trades. He was connected with big concerns in his own city and Birmingham, such as the Bristol Wagon Works and the Patent Nut and Bolt Company, and politically might be described as a sound but not an advanced Liberal. His life had been business not politics, and he had not given any great amount of thought to the questions of the hour. He had been Mayor of Bristol for four successive years, and always treated every class and creed of citizen with lavish hospitality. It was rumoured that he would have been member for the city before its division into districts, but for an untoward incident arising during his mayoralty, which, though merely prompted by his natural hospitality and kindness of heart, was misunderstood
by those who had to consider its legal parliamentary bearings. Mr. Samuel Morley, who had been member since 1868, was desirous of retiring for reasons of health, and the local association interviewed two candidates. The first was an eminent counsel of the Western Circuit. He, with Gladstone bag and the true faith in him, came down from London, gave the deputation a sound political oration at his hotel, and with incorruptible correctness bade them good evening. The deputation then walked across to the Town Hall, where they were received by Mr. Weston, who told them in a few words his short and simple creed. This over, he said with a sigh of relief: “Now, gentlemen, politics are done with, and I am once more the Mayor of the City, and as I have never allowed any deputation to go away from the Town Hall without entertainment, I can make no exception of yourselves.” The doors were thrown open and they sat down to a princely supper.
Sad to say, when this reached the ears of the eminent London counsel and his legal friends in high places in the party, their formal minds saw in the kindly Mayor’s thoughtful hospitality the possibility of future trouble in Election Courts. The fact that the same evening or early next morning the association had unanimously selected Mr. Weston as their candidate, did not seem to weigh with them against his dangerous act of playing the good Samaritan to possible voters. A way out of the difficulty was found by persuading Mr. Samuel
Morley not to resign, and in 1885 Mr. Weston’s chance came, when he was assigned the South Division of Bristol, rightly regarded from a Liberal point of view as the one doubtful proposition of the election.
Mr. Weston was certainly one of the most generous of men. There was nothing grudging or of necessity about his donations, he was in heart and aspect a cheerful giver. He had a special secretary to investigate cases of distress and keep the accounts of his subscriptions, and it was really a matter of sorrow to him that during the election he had to keep his hands out of his pockets and close his ears to local appeals for fear of committing some breach of election rules. He had always been in favour of Disestablishment, and though this was not really an important issue at this election, the drum ecclesiastical was beaten through the streets of Bedminster, and a serious clerical campaign was entered upon against him. With priestly tact a sermon was preached against Mr. Weston in one of the churches which had been enriched by his gift. If I remember right, the present had been the very pulpit from which the clerical election bomb was hurled. The incident created a good deal of stir. It is curious what small things influence the course of an election. That sermon, the output of sincere, weak-minded, unbusinesslike enthusiasm, preached probably to a regular Tory-voting congregation, where there was no possibility of gaining votes, became a valuable electioneering asset to Mr. Weston’s friends. He himself got many letters from fellow-citizens opposed
to him in politics regretting the affair, but I do not recall that he ever referred to it in public himself.