CHAPTEE V. 



OUR LEGISLATION IN THE MATTER MR. J. S. 

 MILL MR. HUGHES UTILITARIANISM REFORM 

 METAPHYSICS MR. GLADSTONE. 



I WONDER whether there ever was such a muddle 

 before. No doubt it was a puzzling case ; for we 

 all know that in a free country those who govern 

 ought to be governed by those who are governed j 

 but "quot homines tot sententisej" so what were 

 they to do ? There is one thing very satisfactory, 

 and that is the way the practical working of our 

 mode of government answers to the theory of it. 

 The theory says that the legislation should represent 

 and echo the opinion of the public. Now about 

 the cattle plague the opinion of the public was 

 simply confusion ; and the legislation has been con- 

 fusion worse confounded. 



By the bye, what a curious idea that is of 

 modern times, that the rulers of a nation should be 

 ruled by the people they rule j that the legislators, 

 supposed to be elected for their superiority in wis- 

 dom and experience, should, instead of consulting 

 that wisdom and experience, consult only the pre- 

 sumed inferior wisdom and experience of those who 

 selected them; that the educated should be go- 

 verned by the uneducated, and the wisdom and 



