THE MACHINERY OF ELECTIVE GOVERNMENT. 629 



brought to a close ; the prolongation of the struggle, with all the 

 appeals to passion and other sinister motives which it involves, is seri- 

 ously affecting character and collecting difficulties round the govern- 

 ment of the future, while a deeper and more momentous revolution, in 

 the religious and social sphere, threatens the stability of civilization, 

 and demands with increasing urgency the attention of the world. 



It is needless to say that the forms of government are not all. 

 Constitutions, however wisely framed, will not work without political 

 character ; nevertheless, constitutions are most important, and their 

 influence in forming political character is not small. The adoption of 

 elective government in any shape implies of course that the people 

 have arrived at a certain stage of intelligence and self-control. In 

 what are called the South American republics the attempt to intro- 

 duce elective institutions among Spanish Creoles and Indians has totally 

 failed, and the l'esult is a series of dictatorships, the offspring of usur- 

 pation, which are little better than leaderships of a human herd. A 

 sudden introduction of elective government into Russia would, in like 

 manner, probably result in anarchy. On this subject the world has 

 received lessons which reaction has exaggerated to the extent of almost 

 denying the usefulness of wisely ordered institutions, as though blind 

 habit and prejudice alone were trusty guides, and reason, sovereign in 

 all other spheres, were excluded from the highest. 



Strict definitions of government and enumerations of its functions 

 are of little value. It may be described, practically, as the organiza- 

 tion of the community for such objects as are best attained by com- 

 mon action ; a definition which will include national defense and pro- 

 tection of life and property always, but also such other objects as cir- 

 cumstance and the conditions of the nation internal or external may 

 from time to time suggest : centi'alization being at one time good, 

 while, when a system has been set on foot and the people trained for 

 it, the moment for decentralization may arrive, individual action being 

 as a rule preferable because it calls forth more public virtue and raises 

 the character of the citizen. 



In such a paper as this, all that can be done is to present the chief 

 points as they have been brought before the writer's mind by seeing 

 the working of elective government in three countries Great Britain, 

 the United States, and a British colony. This object will be secured 

 even if none of the writer's opinions, which are stated with unavoid- 

 able brevity^ should commend themselves to the reader. 



The chief points are party government, the expediency of a second 

 Chamber, the mode of electing the Legislative Assembly, the constitu- 

 tion of the Executive, and the franchise. The consideration of these 

 at least suffices for the present. On the horizon there are perhaps 

 symptoms of a still greater change. Parliaments are losing much of 

 their importance, because the real deliberation is being transferred 

 from them to the press and the general organs of discussion by which 



