Science and Administration 



whom a certain number of distinguished and in- 

 dispensable persons can be induced to associate 

 themselves. As it is with the Prime Minister, so 

 it is with his colleagues. Governments are formed 

 by bringing together those who are sufficiently 

 agreed as to special issues which for the time are 

 of acute interest, who have skill in Parliamentary 

 debate, who represent and conciliate important 

 sections of public opinion. But their members, 

 though they are expected to have the ability that 

 will make them capable administrators, do not 

 usually possess any high degree of knowledge of 

 the subjects with which their departments have 

 to deal. 



To all this we must reconcile ourselves ; and 

 it is no less true of the Parliament to which 

 governments are responsible. It is surely true 

 of the House of Lords, and it is true of the 

 House of Commons that collection of business 

 men and lawyers, country gentlemen, labour re- 

 presentatives, and unattached persons by which 

 the business of the country is controlled. The 

 mood of Parliament is as remote from science 

 as its procedure is from celerity. Not that, for 

 example, the House of Commons is indifferent to 

 expert opinion. It is a body largely composed 

 of men who are accustomed to rely on trained 

 advisers ; and nothing is more characteristic of 

 it than its willingness to hear people on subjects 

 which they understand. But it is in practice 

 much more a medium for the criticism and ac- 

 commodation of ideas than for their origination. 



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