ON POLITICAL SCIENCE. 11 



The machinery which works our national (if I may so style our central government) 

 as well as our provincial and local systems of government, is obviously of a complex 

 character, requiring a large number of persons for administrative, judicial and municipal 

 purposes. To those officials and legislators we must add the relatively small number of 

 learned men who are called upon to occupy the bench, and administer the law which, 

 with the exception of the fundamental law or constitution governing the Dominion and 

 its various sections, is amended from time to time by the parliament and the legislatures. 

 If we add to this official and judicial personnel the large niimber of individuals who 

 practice the learned profession of the law, or if we add, too, the nvimerous persons out- 

 side the classes just mentioned who are more or less identified as citizens in the 

 efficient working of our political system, we shall see how many men in this country are 

 deeply interested in the acciirate study of Political Science. 



The study of constitutional law and of constitutional history, in fact, opens up to 

 the lawyer an exhaustive field of research. It broadens his sphere of knowledge much 

 moi-e than the ordinary technical studies of his profession. Questions constantly arise 

 which require him to make investigations into the annals of the times preceding the 

 formation of the constitution, and to inquire by what events it was preceded, as well as 

 to study the natiirc and scope of the provincial organizations previous to Confederation. 



But it is not merely the lawyer, the statesman, or the publicist, who has a deep 

 interest in the consideration of the various political and economic qrxestions which enter 

 into the course of Avhich I am speaking. There is one class which, above all others, 

 should haA'e a deep insight into the wise solution of the many social problems which arise 

 from time to time and demand the earnest thought of every person who looks to the happi- 

 ness of the community. No one would wish to see the clergy take an active interest or 

 participate vigorously in the jDurely political conflicts of the day — I mean, such an in- 

 terest or participation as would Aveaken their influence in their proper sphere ;■ — ^but no 

 one now-a-days can keep aloof from great hixman interests, and occasions may arise when 

 even clergymen may properly consider it necessary to give warning and advice, not 

 as partisans, but as dispassionate, impartial critics, animated solely by a conscientious 

 desire to unite and not dissever the different classes which make up the people of 

 this Dominion, and to consider the national good as the highest and purest x^urpose of a 

 Canadian's life. 



Nor should I forget to refer to the important effects that a course of Political Science 

 may have upon journalism in Canada. In a country of poi)ular government, the press 

 necessarily exercises a large influence which, on the whole in Canada, is directed to the 

 promotion of the public interests. It is true that party conflict has given to the great 

 majority of our public journals a partisan character which too often prevents the people 

 from obtaining that impartial criticism of public men and matters of controversy which 

 they have a right to expect from their self-constituted teachers. Partisan journalism 

 is, however, one of the penalties we must expect to pay for party government, and the 

 time seems yet far off when independent journalism is likely to assert itself on any large 

 scale. No one will deny that the leading ncAvspapers of the Dominion are edited and 

 written with decided ability, and represent fairly the intelligence of the country at 

 large. The tendency in Canada, as in the United States, is to publish short crisp articles 

 in the editorial columns, instead of the elaborate, and often too heavy, articles which 



