664 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



To be perfectly frank, none but the Political Adventurer and his 

 advertiser the Daily Journalist. The amazing stupidity of 

 the British public regarding the people whom it elects to 

 govern it is perhaps the most remarkable fact in the modern 

 history of Britain. Our opinion is diametrically the opposite 

 of that of the Times. We think that if by some such system 

 as that of the Proportional Representation Society Parlia- 

 ment and Government were to be filled, not by those who 

 have never done anything in the world — the professional 

 talkers, the men who are out for getting on in the world, the 

 Men of Principle, the Cuffs-and-Collars Men, the Sniffers, and 

 the Younger Sons — but by those who have previously demon- 

 strated their ability by good work actually done, the State 

 would no longer be afflicted by such obtuseness, want of fore- 

 thought, ignorance of administration, and indifference to all the 

 highest interests of life as have been exhibited in the manage- 

 ment of it for many years past. The world would be better 

 governed by those who have a reputation to lose than by those 

 who have a reputation to make. Why a popular novelist, a 

 poet, a philosopher, or a theologian should not be able to 

 achieve work of any kind as well as the demagogues of the 

 hustings or the anonymous compilers of dignified logomachy 

 in the press it is impossible to understand. When one looks 

 round at the Governments, not only of Britain but of the 

 Colonies, one asks what on earth have these men ever done to 

 justify the selection of them for their posts — the chief Depart- 

 ments of State managed by persons who do not possess a grain 

 of knowledge upon the subjects which the Departments have 

 to deal with, and our Colonies ruled by the poorer scions of our 

 nobility. Behind it all the incessant, garrulous, and caco- 

 phonous frog-chorus of the political fen of Journalism 1 



Party Impolitics 



We are asked why so many journals, including Science 

 Progress, are at present attacking party politics, and, if party 

 politics are abolished, what form of government we should 

 propose. This reminds one of the story of the man who when 

 a large tumour was removed from him complained that he 

 did not recognise himself ; and our questioners evidently confuse 

 the patient with the disease. Party politics do not constitute 





