744 "J^HE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sentiment of the legislature for the time being. But the executive 

 under such a system would do its own work, and leave the legislature 

 free to do the work of legislation. The special initiation of the Min- 

 ister of Finance in financial matters would be preserved by the same 

 sense of an obvious necessity which has established it. In the per- 

 formance of purely administrative duties, all the members of the coun- 

 cil might without difficulty agree, and their cooperation in their 

 proper work might be perfect, notwithstanding possible differences of 

 opinion about matters of legislation. Why should not a good Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer act in harmony with a good Home Secretary 

 notwithstanding a difference of opinion about the church establish- 

 ment or the extension of the franchise? Why should the country be 

 prevented by that difference from availing itself of the administrative 

 capacity of both ? And why should not each be free to vote as a 

 member of the legislature, in accordance with his personal opinion ? 

 At present a cabinet has something of the character of a conspiracy, 

 inembers often suppressing or even acting against their own opinions 

 in order to present a united front to the enemy and to maintain their 

 hold of power, from which no small calamities have flowed. It Avould 

 not be difficult to point to instances of measures forced on a cabinet 

 by some leading member, his colleagues acquiescing merely from fear 

 of a break-up, and then carried through Parliament by the influence 

 of government, though the sense both of the legislature and the cabi- 

 net was really the other way. 



The tendency inherent in party government to supersede the na- 

 tional legislature by the party caucus has long been completelj'^ de- 

 veloped in tlie United States, where it may be said that in ordinary 

 times the only real debates are those held in caucus, congressional 

 legislation being simply a registration of the caucus decision, for 

 which all members of the pai'ty, whether they agreed or dissented in 

 the caucus, feel bound by party allegiance to record their votes in the 

 House ; just as the only real election is the nomination by the caucus 

 of the party which has the majority, and which then collectively im- 

 poses its will on the constituency ; so that measures and elections 

 may be and often are carried by a minority but little exceeding one- 

 fourth of the House or the constituency, as the case may be. The 

 same tendency is rapidly developing itself in England ; and it is evi- 

 dently fatal to the genuine existence of parliamentary institutions. 



So far as England is concerned, the institution of an executive reg- 

 ularly elected by the legislature at large in place of a cabinet formed 

 of the leaders of a party majority would be substantially a return to 

 the old form of government the Privy Council. Parliament is now 

 the sovereign power, and election by it would be equivalent to the 

 ancient nomination by the crown. The mode of electing and confirm- 

 ing a Speaker shows how the forms of monarchy may be reconciled 

 with the action of an elective institution. 



