VI PREFACE. 



are indeed some manufacturers, merchants, or 

 men of personal property ; but they are without 

 influence, and remain isolated amidst so nume- 

 rous a body, the members of which are united 

 by the same interests, the same habits, and the 

 same alliances. With regard to the House of Lords, 

 its members are wholly strangers to all that is not 

 territorial property. 



Thus, since there have arisen projects of public 

 works or disputes amongst the different bodies of 

 manufacturers, merchants or shipowners, Parlia- 

 ment has always instituted an inquiry, conducted 

 by a Committee which is appointed by the Speaker 

 of one of the two Houses. 



These Houses, having no member competent to 

 judge of the various professions, are in the same 

 position as a tribunal, the magistrates of which are 

 called upon to adjudicate in disputes respecting 

 the construction of a building, although themselves 

 ignorant of the art of building, and even of the dif- 

 ferent materials of which the edifice is composed. 

 This tribunal selects a jury of artists, and the 

 parties appoint barristers. The same takes place 

 in an Inquiry : the whole of the proceedings are 

 in the end printed, and every one is instructed in 

 what concerns his profession. 



The legislative assemblies of the rest of Europe, 

 on the contrary, comprise members who belong to 



