41 6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



creased by the consciousness of the strain to which they are exposed, and 

 who feel strongly that while the principles of the Government and the char- 

 acter of the people " are still sound and reliable, some modifications and 

 readjustments of the machinery must take place, unless we are to drift 

 through practical anarchy and increasing corruption to military despo- 

 tism." For the sake of putting the subject in a clearer light, the three 

 more prominent approaches to democratic government in modern times — 

 those of England, France, and the United States — are studied compara- 

 tively in the former part of the work. The carrying on of governments 

 in accordance with the expressed wish of the people is spoken of in the be- 

 ginning as the appearance of a new force which has changed the whole 

 face of society, and points to still greater changes in the future. How it 

 has worked in the three countries in which it has been in operation for a 

 little more than a century, and what it has done, are the questions which 

 the author undertakes to answer. In England, popular government has 

 taken the form, with a powerless hereditary sovereign commanding univer- 

 sal loyalty, of a ministry responsible to a Parliament, which is directly 

 responsible to the people. In France, the executive is controlled by a legis- 

 lative body chosen by universal suffrage, the majority of which is held 

 together by party discipline. The virtue of this government is undergoing 

 a supreme test in the Dreyfus case, the right issue of which would show 

 a greater proportional advance in true liberty and the justification of popu- 

 lar government than has taken place in any other nation. In the United 

 States, power is passing more and more into Congress, a body chosen sepa- 

 rately from the President, whose members are actuated by personal, local, 

 and partisan motives, and rarely rise to the conception of broad national 

 views or look further than to the immediate present, while the nation 

 at large and the Executive are without representation such as insures the 

 co-operation of the ministry and Parliament in England. In all other 

 respects than appointments to office, which must be made " in strict sub- 

 ordination to the demands of members of his party in both Houses of Con- 

 gress," the recognized power of the Executive is confined within very nar- 

 row limits. In matters of legislation he has no voice whatever beyond 

 general recommendations, such as are open to any citizen, and to which 

 Congress pays little or no attention. In fact, that body resents anything 

 like an expression of opinion from the President. The system is not en- 

 couraging to the filling of the office by men of the first rank, and men of 

 that rank seldom reach it. The House of Kepresentatives, meeting every 

 two years a new body, suffers from its entire Avant of coherency and the 

 absence of a qualified leader, and falls an easy prey to the lobbyist and the 

 boss. So, while "there are still many, perhaps the majority, of men of 

 good character in public life, the tendency is steadily downward." It has 

 been customary in some quarters to charge the evils we suffer upon uni- 

 versal suffrage, but Mr. Bradford maintains that it is this which to-day 

 is keeping up the character of the Government, and that but for the 

 restraints imposed by it our political condition would be a great deal 

 worse than it is. Further light is sought upon the situation, and further 

 pictures are given of the conditions existing in comprehensive reviews of 

 the State and municipal governments of the country. In considering pro- 

 posed remedies the referendum is dismissed as tending to destroy person- 

 ality and diffuse responsibility even more than is done now — the reverse of 

 the concentration of executive power as the only really indispensable part 

 of the Government, which should be sought. The enforcement of this 



