THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, 11th JUNE, 1896.

Southland Times, Issue 13478, 11 June 1896, Page 2

THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, 11th JUNE, 1896.

Mr Lecky, who will generally be admitted to be the first philosophic bis* toriao of the age, has recently published a very remarkable book, worthy of bis reputation. The title " Democracy and " Liberty," fully explains tbe Bubject, Irhich is treated in a temperate and judicial epirir, and with marked independence of judgment. Do Toqueville, Mil l , and other leading authorities, English and foreign, on political economy have attempted to analyse the ingredients of democracy, to forecast its outcome, and to forwarn the world of the penis following in its train, but they do not study the problem in all its fulness and complexity, which accounts for many of their prognostications having proved strikingly at variance with experience. Mr Lecky has fallen, if anything into the opposite error. The range of his inquiry is immense. He draws bis illustrations from all modem forms of democracy, and examines the problem from many sides, so that the thread of connection is not easily traced between the different themes, and the area of the whole work is, The Times asserts in its lengthy review, " near'y " coextensive with the whole circle of " political philosophy."

The cardinal political error of ihe dar, Mr Lecky thinks, is the doctrine, originally promulgated by Rossean, that eactj man should hive a vote and one of tbe game value, und th-.it repro- ! sentatives should be mere delegates. In political affaire, he sty, " The wise " are few, the ignorant and incapable " many. To entrust preponderant " power to t ho latter is at variance with " the experience of mankind, which is " that superiority should lie with tbe " few. Unless the government of man--11 kind be different from every other " form of known enterprise, it must de- " teriorate if it is placed under tbe control "of the most unintelligent classes. " Surely nothing in ancient alchemy was " more irrational than tbe notion that " increased ignorance in the elective " body will be converted to increased " capacity for good government in the " representative body, Toe day will " come when it will appear one of tbe " strangest facts in tbe history of " human folly that such a theory " was regarded as liberal and pro- " gressive." Mr Lecky points out that tbe most successful Parliamet-ta at Home and abroad were elected on a restricted suffrage, whilst the parliaments responsible for unstable or wasteful administration — those whose conduct has made men despair of the future of parliamentary government — have been the offspring of universal suffrage. He admits that everywhere this system i* established or imminent, and be ascribes (hip, not to the belief iir its superiority, but to the existence of a new form of sycophancy — men finding it to their im j mediate interest to declaim against the iniquities of privilege and extol the matchless wisdom of the masses. " Many " of those who are doing their best t > " reduce the influence of educttion and " intelligence ia English politics are w highly cultivated men, who owe to " University education all that they an , 11 though they aro now imitating — " usually with awkward and overstraii ed " effort — the rant of the vulgar dema- j " gogue. They have taken their line " in public life, and some of them have " attained their ends. Ido not think " that the respect of honest men will " form any la ge part of their rewnr^. " It is curious how often in modem '• England extreme enthusiasm for edu- " cation is combined with an utter did- " regard for the opinions of the more " educated classee." Whilst not absolutely condemning the principles of democracy Mr Lecky, throughout bis two volumes, unsparingly criticises its

shortcoming", and warns the people of the fallacious and deceitful promises of revolutionary changes under the pretext ot more folly carrying out these principles. Each c f the modern experiments in democracy is in turn examined, with conclusions far from cheering. Universal suffrage in France, he notes, brought in'o existence the despotic Empire of 1852, aggravated the national disasters of 1870, and has Bince produced or developed Ministerial instability, j loss of continuity of policy, a lower type jf public ideals, a deterioration inofficial life ; and he asks : " Has it raised " France to a higher plane of liberty " (han in the past? Has it managed " with peculiar wisdom the revenues of " Franco ? Has it given her a nobler "'or more generous foreign policy?" He speaks no more favourably of democracy in America. It has naadp, he Bays, the spoils system and the caucus important parts of the government of the country. It has introduced waste, enormous political and muuicipal corruption, and it hasbrougbt about what iB far worse — acquiescence in corruption. " Notorious profligacy " in public life and in the administra- " tion of public funds seems to excite '• little more than a disdainful smile. It "is treated as very natural — as ttie " normal result of the existing form of " government."— — No aspect of the modern development of democracy alarms VTr Lecky more than the consequences upon taxation. More and more, he says, it is employed for objects other than the common interests of the community. A new spirit of complaisance towards measures of spoliation, he declares, is abroad ; graduated taxation ia likely to be extended, with the result of bringing about a social and political transformation in the character of wealth, and destructive of the English country life, as it has hitherto been knowc In face of the calamities whicb, be thinks, threaten the very existence of the Empire, and the " enormous danger of placing the es- " sential elements of the Constitution •' at tbe mercy of a simple mßJority of " a single Parliament," Mr Lecky would seek in democracy itself a remedy for the evils which alarm him. (n order to counteract the possible revolutionary action of Parliament, he regards the referendum as a device full of promise ; as likely to prove the most powerful bulwark against " violent and dishonest " change." It would bring into actioo, be says, the opinion of the great silent classes of the community, and reduce to their true proportions the many movements to which party combinations or noisy agitations have given a whoily factitious prominence. "it might re- " store in another form something of " the old balanced Constitution which " has now so nearly passed away." If when the House of Lords differed on a question of grave national importance from the Commons it possessed and exercised the power of submitting that question to the direct vote of the electorates, the most skilful demagogue would fail to persuade the people that it was trampling on their rights. If, again, the power of insisting upon a referendum were placed, as in bwizterland, in the hands of a large body of voters, it would still, Mr Lecky thinkp, form a counterpoise and check of the most important kind. The referendum, he explains, is not intended as a substitute for representative government. All the advantages of parliamentary debate would still remain. Policies would not be thrown before the electorate in a crude, undeveloped, indigested state. All measures would still pass through Parliament, and the great majority would be finally decided by Parliament. It would only be in a few cases, after a measure had been thoroughly discussed in all its bearings, after tbe two Houses bad given their judgment, that the nation would be called upon to adjudicate. The referendum would, iv fact, he says, be an appeal from a party majority, probably made up of discordant group?, to the genuine opinion of the country. It would be an appeal on a question that had been thoroughly examined, and on which the people had every means of arriving at a conclusion. It would be a clear and decisive verdict on a matter on which the two branches of the Legislature had differed " The old saying of BurgUey, 11 that England never can be ruined but " by her Parliament, was never more " true than at the present time, and the " uncontrolled, unbalanced authority of " a single representative body, consti- " tuted like our own, seems to me, one " of che gravest dangers of the Empire " In our age we must mainly look to " democracy for a remedy. According " to the theories that now prevail, the " House of Commons has absolutely no " right as against its electors, and it is " to the electors that the referendum " would transfer, in a far more efficient " manner than at present, the supreme " authority in legislation." " Democracy and Liberty " is a most valuable contribution to the literature of political economy and philosophy ; it is a rentable encyclopaedia of information, and should be on tbe tabb of every public library, and might with great advantage be studied by all engaged, or who take an interest in, the solution of the political and social problems of the day.