364 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



in bemoaning the apathy with which each successive House 

 of Commons has yielded something to the pressure of the 

 political machine. Our present purpose is to deal with facts, 

 rather than to inquire exhaustively into the causes which have 

 conspired, under a process of peaceful penetration, to convert 

 a free democracy into an oligarchy the members of which 

 enjoy practically absolute power, under cover of Parliamentary 

 forms and institutions. Just as Samson of old was able to 

 impose his will upon the Philistines until the secret of his 

 strength was disclosed, so will British Cabinets continue to 

 dictate to British Parliaments, until the conditions under 

 which they exercise their usurped authority are more fully 

 understood by the British people. It is as a contribution to 

 that fuller understanding, which must precede Parliamentary 

 reform, that the following suggestions are presented. 



It must not, of course, be supposed that the Government — 

 to whichever party it may belong — is necessarily a greater sinner 

 than the Opposition. It has merely, for the time being, greater 

 opportunities of domination. When an Opposition becomes a 

 Government, it inevitably succumbs to the temptation to use 

 the implements which it finds lying ready to its hand, to 

 maintain the discipline of its Party and the authority of its 

 leaders. 



Under modern Parliamentary conditions, the Prime Minister 

 of the United Kingdom is a more powerful autocrat than the 

 head of many a sovereign State, for he not only makes and 

 unmakes Ministers, but, in virtue of his constitutional right 

 to advise the Crown to dissolve Parliament, is able to control 

 a recalcitrant majority in the House of Commons, by threaten- 

 ing his followers with the instant loss of their seats in the 

 event of their failing to obey his behests as interpreted to 

 them by the Party Whips. These are tremendous powers to 

 place in the hands of any man and were formidable indeed when 

 exercised, as in recent years, by a personality so powerful, 

 and an intellect so acute, as that of the late Prime Minister. 

 They are powers which not even the most brilliant and sagacious 

 of Party leaders should possess. Human nature being what 

 it is, and the love of power inherent in the human breast, 

 and most highly developed in the most capable members of 

 our race, it would be futile, as well as unjust, to censure indi- 

 viduals for exercising an authority which they fondly imagine 



