642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



citement of feeling on one question, to the neglect of the more general 

 interests of the commonwealth. The term for which each member of 

 the central Legislature was elected would be fixed, and there would be 

 an end of the ministerial prerogative of dissolution, which has run into 

 grave abuse, and may run into graver abuse still, if ministers are 

 allowed to dissolve whenever they think they are sure of winning the 

 elections, and thus to perpetuate their tenure of power. The election of 

 a central Legislature by local Legislatures, and the installments, would 

 no doubt be a tame affair compared with the turmoil of a general elec- 

 tion under the present system ; and those who think that turmoil is 

 life will at once reject the proposal : to the writer, after observing 

 the politics of a colony and of the United States, as well as those of 

 England, the reverse appears to be the case. Turmoil and healthy 

 political life seem to him totally different things. Mere saving of 

 expense is not a paramount object, but the corruption as well as the 

 enormous waste of general elections would be at an end. Nor is 

 there much danger of stagnation : the world is in a fair way to have 

 agitating questions enough, without breaking heads for Blue and 

 Yellow. 



Bad influences vanity, intrigue, pique, self-interest, corruption, 

 narrowness of view and motive can not be excluded by any conceiv- 

 able machinery from any human assembly. But the members of a 

 local council, electing members of the national Legislature, would at 

 least be acting under the eyes of the community, and with something 

 of the responsibility which attaches to the exercise of a personal trust. 

 They would usually have too much largeness of view to vote against 

 an eminent man because he had promoted co-operative stores, or be- 

 cause he had gone wrong on the dog-tax. Nor in any reasonably 

 moral community would they be likely to take direct bribes. It is 

 time, however, as every one who lives under the rule of colonial poli- 

 ticians knows too well, that political corruption, in high places as 

 well as in low, should be distinctly stamped as a crime, and brought 

 under the regular cognizance of justice. It is just as capable of defi- 

 nition and of proof as any other crime, and assuredly it is not the 

 least heinous in the list. For this purpose, as for the trial of contested 

 elections, a tribunal is needed free from partisan influence and open 

 for the reception of charges brought against men in public trusts by 

 any citizen, with proper safeguards, of course, against wantonness or 

 malice. Impeachment is obsolete, and an investigation undertaken by 

 Parliament under the party system becomes a faction-fight. It seems 

 incredible that the framers of constitutions for colonies teeming with 

 corruption should have failed to make any provision for the trial of 

 political offenses. 



If we are asked whether it is at all likely that the plan of indirect 

 election will be adopted, the vote for the supreme Legislature having 

 been once ostensibly given to the people at large, we say at once that 



