NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 



BY JAMES BRYCE 



[James Bryce, Member of the British Privy Council, M. P. for Aberdeen, b. 

 Belfast, May 10, 1838. B.A. Oxford University, 1862; D.C.L. ibid. 1870; 

 Hon. LL.D. Edinburgh, St. Andrew's, and Glasgow Universities, Columbia 

 University, Dartmouth College, University of Toronto, University of Michigan; 

 Litt.D. University of Cambridge, Victoria University; Doctor of Political 

 Science, Buda Pesth University. Post-graduate of Oxford and Heidelberg. 

 Barrister-at-Law, Lincoln's Inn, 1868; Regius Professor of Civil Law, Oxford, 

 1870-93; Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1886; Chancellor of 

 the Duchy of Lancaster, and Member of Cabinet in Mr. Gladstone's last Minis- 

 try, 1892-94. Foreign member of the Institute of France and Royal Acad- 

 emies of Turin, Brussels, and Naples; Societa Romana di Storia Patria; 

 Corresponding Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Royal Acad- 

 emy of Canada, and Literary Society of Iceland. Author of The Holy Roman 

 Empire; The American Commonwealth; Studies in History and Jurisprudence; 

 Impressions of South Africa; Studies in Contemporary Biography; and many 

 other works.] 



THE subject of national administration, on which I am invited to 

 address you, is one of wide scope as well as great importance. It 

 covers so large a field, it ramifies into so many branches of inquiry, 

 that all I can attempt in the limited time allotted is to sketch its 

 outline and to indicate the chief topics which would need to be dis- 

 cussed in detail were a detailed discussion possible. It is a bird's- 

 eye survey of the landscape rather than a description of its features 

 that I must proceed to attempt. 



By national administration I understand the whole action of the 

 state in maintaining and defending itself and in securing for its mem- 

 bers, the citizens, what it undertakes to do for them. It is that 

 organization which the community has created for the two great 

 purposes of self-preservation and of mutual benefit. Speaking more 

 precisely, it has four aims. The first is the defense of the community 

 against external forces, i. e., neighbor states or tribes, who were in 

 early times presumably enemies. The second is the defense of the 

 persons or bodies that govern the community against internal 

 forces that may assail it, i. e., against rebellion. The third is to 

 provide for the members of the community the things for the sake of 

 which the state is primarily formed, viz., order and the enforcement 

 of civil rights, or, in other words, peace and justice. The fourth is 

 to extend to members of the community various advantages which 

 they might conceivably provide for themselves, but which it is 

 supposed that the state through its servants can provide more effi- 

 ciently. I omit the provision of religion, because many modern 

 states leave it on one side and do not touch on the administration of 

 dependencies, because this is frequently absent. 



