ON POLITICAL SCIENCE. 9 



(despite the old saying that figures can be made to prove anything) is invaluable in the 

 consideration of questions like those I have cursorily mentioned. It is only necessary to 

 study the pages of the works of a man like Mr. Mulhall, the eminent English statist and 

 economist, to see how important and useful is a scientific method of handling figures 

 and drawing from them sound deductions as to a nation's prosperity or decline. 



"While it i.s to England that we naturally look for those lessons and examples of 

 statesmanship and political sagacity, which may assist us in laying broad and deei^ the 

 foundations of our political organization and social system, the student of Political Science 

 cannot fail at the same time to draw much valuable instruction from a close and constant 

 study of the institutions, national, state, and municipal, of our American neighbors. 

 They, like ourselves have borrowed largely from the parent state, to which we both owe 

 our origin, in organizing their system of government, and it is the common law of Eng- 

 land, we all know, that lies at the basis of their system of jurisprudence. Some among 

 us have a practice of depreciating American institutions, thinking that this is the best, as 

 it is certainly sometimes the easiest, way of showing the superiority of our own politi- 

 tical and social conditions ; but after an honest and assiduous study of the political 

 systems of both countries, I must fairly come to the conclusion that each of us may learn 

 something from the other, and that there is a great deal to admire in the sagacity, the 

 biisiness-like methods, and the thorough organization of many of the institutions of our 

 neighbors. 



If we should study thoroughly the comprehensive and thoughtful work on the 

 American Commonwealth by Prof. Bryce, one of those men who do honour to the 

 great seat of learning on the banks of the Isis, we shall see that this particular study is 

 full of encouragement and warning to us at one and the same time ; but " its chief value," 

 to quote his exact words, and apply them to ourselves rather than to England, " lies in 

 what may be called the laws of political biology which it reveals, in the new illustrations 

 and enforcements it supplies of general truths in social and political science, truths, 

 some of which were presented long ago by Plato and Aristotle, but which might have 

 been forgotten had not America poured a stream of light upon them." 



As I have just said, both Canada and the United States can trace all the valuable insti- 

 tutions they possess to England. Their legislative bodies have been modelled on the great 

 parliament of the parent state. The many differences that now exist between the govern- 

 ment of Canada and that of the United States have arisen from the differences in the poli- 

 tical circumstances and varying conditions of the two countries. The United States for 

 more than a century and a half had been colonies of England, enjoying a system of legal 

 and political institutions, which was their natural heritage as Englishmen. When their 

 independence was acknowledged and it became necessary to mature a constitution adapted 

 to the new state of things, they proceeded to frame a government, which throughout 

 shows that they still considered the English government superior in essential respects to 

 all other governments in the world. In the division of legislative, judicial and executive 

 departments which they made, they showed their desire to adhere to those important 

 principles which evoked the admiration of Montesquieu. The president was still the 

 king of England, though he was deprived of powers which the Americans considered 

 fatal to their liberty. He was given the right of veto over legislative acts and of ap- 

 pointing his own cabinet. But the council was not made responsible to or given seats 



Sec. II, 1889. 2. 



