376 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



realise that a nation which has outgrown its childhood will 

 no longer accept the shadow for the substance or allow itself 

 to be duped by fine phrases ? Under the influence of an experi- 

 ence unparalleled in human history, Britain has awakened from 

 her long slumber. Let those who would keep her still in leading 

 strings beware. Institutions which are the slow growth of 

 centuries of conflict and experience are of priceless value to 

 a nation, and those who endanger their stability, by refusing 

 to allow them to adapt themselves to changed and changing 

 circumstances, incur a grave responsibility. They are the real 

 revolutionaries of to-day. 



In this connection, it is certainly significant that although 

 the National Government which has recently come into being 

 owes its existence to extra-Parliamentary pressure ; Mr. 

 Asquith's resignation not having been brought about by any 

 hostile vote of the House of Commons ; the new Prime Minister 

 — a man of boundless energy and democratic temperament — 

 has taken the earliest opportunity of dissociating himself from 

 the dictum that the Ministry " cannot share its responsibility " 

 for the government of the country with the House of Commons ; 

 declaring that " the control of Parliament as a whole must, 

 and always must, be supreme." As Mr. Lloyd George, not 

 content with the expression of a pious opinion, added, " I do 

 not think that the present methods of Parliamentary control 

 are efficient," it is perhaps not too much to hope that, recog- 

 nising the futility of any mere tinkering at the Franchise, he 

 will, at the first favourable opportunity, boldly attack the 

 larger problem of restoring to the House of Commons its rightful 

 place in the Constitution. 



While the time has gone by for merely empirical alterations 

 in our Parliamentary system, a bona-fide attempt at reorgan- 

 isation on scientific principles would be universally welcomed. 

 Such a reform, avoiding extremes and conserving all that is 

 best in what has come down to us from past ages, would 

 recover for Parliament the moral authority upon which its 

 influence so largely depends, and would enable the nation to 

 undertake the tremendous task of general reconstruction, 

 which must follow the re-establishment of peace, under con- 

 ditions ensuring a glorious future for the Empire. 



