THE MACHINERY OF ELECTIVE GOVERNMENT. 641 



The nominations carry with them the elections; the constituency at 

 least has nothing left it but the choice between the two candidates 

 whom the wire-pullers are pleased to set before them, and whose first 

 qualification is of course entire subserviency to party, if not to some- 

 thing narrower still. Nor is there any visible way of breaking out 

 of this fatal circle, which grows continually stronger and more con- 

 fined. If an independent candidate attempts to offer himself, the 

 wire-pullers on both sides practically combine against him as an in- 

 terloper and a leader of rebellion against party discipline. The range 

 of their unbeneficent agencies is, moreover, daily extending and affect- 

 ing every part of public life. It is needless to say that a conclave of 

 Tory squires is just as much a caucus as a Liberal " three hundred." 

 Trusty managers of their own immediate concerns common men will 

 manage to pick out of those with whom they are in daily intercom-se, 

 and whose characters they thoroughly know. In Canada persons 

 qualified to judge say that the local elections, where party does not 

 interfere, are good, and best where the area is smallest. An assembly 

 consisting of the chosen men of each locality will be more intelligent 

 than the body of its constituents, and at each remove upward a step 

 in intelligence is gained. The increased importance given to the 

 local assemblies would raise their character by inducing better men 

 to come forward, especially in the cities. Nor, with a limited body 

 of primary electors, is there much practical difficulty about the nomi- 

 nations. A college of electors, called into existence for a single term, 

 such as that which formally chooses the President of the United 

 States, of course becomes a nullity : the result is a mandate : but this 

 would not be the case with a standing assembly, electing periodically 

 members of a central Legislature. The Senate of the United States, 

 elected by the State Legislatures, may safely be said to be in average 

 ability decidedly above any other legislative assembly in the world, 

 and would be an admirable government if party would let it alone; 

 while the House of Representatives, elected directly by the people, is 

 not only inferior to the Senate in every respect, but is a body the 

 meeting of which is by all good citizens justly regarded with dismay, 

 while its departure is welcomed as a deliverance. The primary elect- 

 ors, instead of losing by the change, would gain a real power of in- 

 direct election, whereas the apparent power of direct election which 

 at present they possess is an illusion, the reality having been filched 

 from them by the caucus, which is always in the hands of a ring. A 

 wise arrangement of local institutions on the elective principle would 

 of course be the basis of the system, as it is the indispensable training- 

 school of the people in self-government. The elections to the central 

 Legislature, party being out of the way, ought to be by installments, 

 a mode which would allow the steady inflow of public opinion, and at 

 the same time prevent cataclysms such as now attend general elec- 

 tions, which are usually decided by some special agitation or an ex- 

 VOL. xx. 41 



