264 SOCIAL REGULATION 



either in the sordid form of distributing spoils, or in the higher aspect 

 of selecting efficient persons for office, it is concerned mainly with 

 the creation of law; not that the direct aim and object of political 

 activity is always legislation, but legislation in some form is usually 

 the indirect, if not the immediate, consequence of political achieve- 

 ment; and this is true where at first sight the connection may appear 

 remote. Political questions concerning foreign affairs, for example, 

 often give rise to treaties, to the recognition of some principle of 

 international law, or to a change in the legal relations of territory. 

 A successful effort in a city to obtain clean streets, or a pure water- 

 supply, is almost certain ultimately to leave its mark upon the 

 statute-book. It is hard to conceive of a struggle, even over a matter 

 of administrative discretion, that is not likely to result in legislation, 

 or subordinate legislative ordinance, or in the increase or diminution 

 of taxation. That which does not exclusively concern persons almost 

 of necessity involves principle ; and if a decisive issue is reached 

 the victorious principle is likely to be established by law. So that 

 the political warfare of to-day leaves its traces in the legislation of 

 to-morrow. 



This may be the case, although the immediate result of the contest 

 is not embodied in positive law. The constitutional rule about 

 the responsibility of ministers has become firmly established in 

 England, and all her self-governing colonies, without any recognition 

 in the law. Yet the principle has deeply affected legislation. It 

 has given rise to statutes that would doubtless not have been enacted 

 otherwise, and in fact it has created the body that really initiates 

 all the important legislation in those countries. 



So far as law is the result of political struggle, it is somewhat in 

 the rear of social evolution, and represents not the last stage of 

 human thought, but the next to last. For a rule of conduct is usu- 

 ally followed by large numbers of people before an attempt is made 

 to enforce it on the rest, and it is certainly largely recognized as a 

 rule that ought to be observed for some time before it is made com- 

 pulsory by public authority; while, on the other hand, laws that 

 have been outgrown, and have ceased to be in harmony with social 

 conditions, often remain in force for a considerable period before 

 they are repealed or become quite obsolete. Law represents, there- 

 fore, the crystallized elements of social evolution, while politics deal 

 with the fluid or transient elements. It deals with questions that 

 arouse immediate interest, and involves a constant effort to trans- 

 form current opinion into law. 



Nodoubt some laws are ephemeral. They are the result of abort- 

 ive political efforts to bring about a change. In that case they do 

 not represent the next to last stage in social evolution, but an aspir- 

 ation, an effort to anticipate and create a future stage, an attempt 



