EDITOR'S TABLE. 



697 



policy. The vindication of party by 

 Edmund Burko has become classical, 

 and Professor Smith quotes him as thus 

 defining it: "Party is a body united 

 for promoting by their joint endeavors 

 the national interest npon some particu- 

 lar principle on which all are agreed.' 1 

 But this ideal of a political party is far 

 enough from corresponding to the pres- 

 ent reality ; and it is an ideal now be- 

 coming increasingly impossible of real- 

 ization. Instead of rallying around 

 principles and carrying them out to vic- 

 torious application, our parties eliminate 

 them as incumbrances and impediments 

 to success. In popular politics, ques- 

 tions of principle have been found sim- 

 ply " unavailable.'' Questions of polit- 

 ical principle are never raised except 

 to be settled, reduced to practice, and 

 passed by. Conflicts of this kind must 

 be ever coming to an end ; but the end 

 of conflict is the death of the parties 

 to it. By the instinct of self-preserva- 

 tion, therefore, political parties will not 

 identify themselves with transient meas- 

 ures the success of which destroys them. 

 Politicians want perpetual power, and, 

 although they talk principles abundant- 

 ly in their convention-platforms, it is 

 only for effect they are not to be 

 hampered by them. 



But there are other and deeper rea- 

 sons why questions of principle can not 

 be made the basis of party government, 

 and reasons to which every succeeding 

 year lends additional force. The the- 

 ory implies that there are, and will al- 

 ways continue to be, great issues of 

 practical moment on which the people 

 will so divide as to perpetuate the party 

 system. But there is by no means an 

 interminable supply of such fundament- 

 al questions as will serve the purpose ; 

 and as we have seen, under an honest 

 pursuit of the policy, they become few- 

 er and fewer. Professor Smith assures 

 us that in Canada the stock of serious 

 political issues is already exhausted, and 

 that consequently " the two parties there 

 are simply two factions fighting for place 



with the usual weapons, and poisoning 

 the political charaoter of the people in 



the process." But, if we have similar 

 results in this country, it is certainly 

 not from lack of paramount questions 

 of public interest not yet settled. The 

 difficulty is, that the community can 

 not be bisected on such questions, as re- 

 quired by practical partisanship. That 

 system demands that the people shall 

 be divided, and remain divided into 

 proximately equal parts that shall be 

 totally opposed to each other, one half 

 denying all that the other half affirms. 

 It is founded upon disagreement, and 

 implies that radical and comprehensive 

 disagreement shall be the normal and 

 permanent thing. 



But it is no longer possible to con- 

 stitute political parties on this basis. 

 The whole tendency of modern ideas is 

 in the opposite direction. The scien- 

 tific spirit of the age is a force to be 

 here counted on, and it is an agency 

 that leads men to agreement. The in- 

 crease of knowledge and the progress 

 of intelligence, by settling principles 

 and harmonizing opinions, must more 

 and more disconcert party arrange- 

 ments. As men learn to think for 

 themselves, and prize truth as the ob- 

 ject of honest thought, they will not 

 range themselves on questions of prin- 

 ciple in ways to suit party manipula- 

 tors. No man can study political and 

 social principles in the true scientific 

 spirit without acquiring earnest and 

 conscientious convictions, which will 

 make him more and more revolt against 

 the insincerity and utter hollowness of 

 our partisan politics. There may be 

 scientific men who are also party poli- 

 ticians ; but it will generally be found 

 that in such cases their science is far 

 removed from the sphere of political 

 thought. 



The scientific spirit is, therefore, 

 in broad and clear antagonism to the 

 partisan spirit in politic-, and, as the 

 law of science is progress, who shall 

 assure us that this is not the agency 



