JOHN STUART MILL. 



503 



question as to the source of duty or obligation, and meets the intui- 

 tioiiists point by point in a way that I need not particularize. 



By far the best hostile criticism of the " Utilitarianism " that I am 

 acquainted with is the posthumous volume of Professor John Grote. 

 It will there be seen what havoc an acute, yet candid and respectful, 

 opponent can make of his theories of happiness. Many of those stric- 

 tures I consider unanswerable. Professor Grote also makes the most 

 of Mill's somewhat exaggerated moral strain, and his affectation of 

 holding happiness in contempt ; " doing without it," if need be. 



It was in 1860 that he wrote his volume on " Representative Gov- 

 ernment." The state- of the Reform question, which led him to pre- 

 pare his pamphlet on Reform, was the motive of the still larger under- 

 taking, his principal contribution to a Philosophy of Politics. He 

 says in the preface, that the chief novelty of the volume is the bring- 

 ing together, in a connected form, the various political doctrines that 

 he had at various times given expression to ; but the mere fact of 

 viewing them in connection necessarily improved their statement and 

 bearings ; and the six or eight months' additional elaboration in his 

 fertile brain could not but infuse additional freshness into the subject. 



In my estimate of Mill's genius, he was first of all a logician, and 

 next a social philosopher or politician. The "Political Economy" 

 and the "Representative Government" constitute his political out- 

 come. People will differ as to his political conclusions, but certainly 

 any man that wishes to judge of any matter within the scope of the 

 " Representative Government " should first see what is there said upon 

 it ; and the work must long enter into the education of the higher class 

 of politicians. The chapter on the " Criterion of a Good Form of 

 Government" contains an exceedingly pertinent discussion of the rela- 

 tion between order and progress ; and demonstrates that order can not 

 be permanent without progress : a position in advance of Comte. The 

 third chapter demolishes the fond theory entertained by many in the 

 present day, that the best government is " absolute authority in good 

 hands." Then comes a question that needs all the author's delicacy, 

 tact, and resource, " Under what conditions is representative govern- 

 ment applicable ? " But his strongest point throughout is the exposi- 

 tion of the dangers and difiiculties attending on democracy. This was 

 one of his oldest themes in the "Westminster Review" ; he has put it 

 in every possible light, and discussed with apostolic ardor all the con- 

 trivances for withstanding the tyranny of the majority. He took up 

 with avidity Mr. Hare's scheme of representation, and never ceased to 

 urge it as the greatest known improvement that representative institu- 

 tions are susceptible of. He dismisses second Chambers as wholly in- 

 adequate to the purpose in view, however useful otherwise. The dis- 

 cussions on the proper functions of the local governing bodies, on 

 dependencies, and on federations, are all brimful of good political 

 thinking. He passes by the subject of hereditary monarchy. Both 



