A tired English statesman at a big reception is still allowed to spend his time rather in chaffing with a few friends in a distant corner of the room than in shaking hands and exchanging effusive commonplaces with innumerable unknown guests.

But there is a real danger lest this tradition of privacy may be abolished in English democracy, simply because of its connection with aristocratic manners.

A young labour politician is expected to live in more than American conditions of intimate publicity.

Having, perhaps, just left the working bench, and having to adjust his nerves and his bodily health to the difficult requirements of mental work, he is expected to receive every caller at any hour of the day or night with the same hearty good will, and to be always ready to share or excite the enthusiasm of his followers.

After a year or two, in the case of a man of sensitive nervous organisation, the task is found to be impossible.