THOSE who have done me the honor of reading my previous writings will probably receive no strong impression of novelty from the present volume; for the principles are those to which I have been working up during the greater part of my life, and most of the practical suggestions have been anticipated by others or by myself. There is novelty, however, in the fact of bringing them together, and exhibiting them in their connection, and also, I believe, in much that is brought forward in their support. Several of the opinions, at all events, if not new, are for the present as little likely to meet with general acceptance as if they were.

It seems to me, however, from various indications, and from none more than the recent debates on Reform of Parliament, that both Conservatives and Liberals (if I may continue to call them what they still call themselves) have lost confidence in the political creeds which they nominally profess, while neither side appears to have made any progress in providing itself with a better. Yet such a better doctrine must be possible; not a mere compromise, by splitting the difference between the two, but something wider than either, which, in virtue of its superior comprehensive

ness, might be adopted by either Liberal or Conservative without renouncing any thing which he really feels to be valuable in his own creed. When so many feel obscurely the want of such a doctrine, and so few even flatter themselves that they have attained it, any one may, without presumption, offer what his own thoughts, and the best that he knows of those of others, are able to contribute toward its formation.

CHAPTER I.
ToAGE

TO WHAT EXTENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT ARE A MATTER OF

CHOICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

CHAPTER II.

THE CRITERION OF A GOOD FORM OF GOVERNMENT............... 26

CHAPTER III.

THAT THE IDEALLY BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT IS REPRE-

SENTATIVE GOVERNMENT to e o is a to e o 'o e e o 'o e o e o 'o e e s is e o so e o e o & e g o e o e o e o so a s is a o e o a 55

CHAPTER IV.

UNDER WHAT SOCIAL CONDITIONS REPRESENTATIVE GOVERN-

MENT IS INAPPLICABLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to & g o e o & to e g g g to $ to so g g g so s a e g o e s a e o e o e e 81

CHAPTER V.

OF THE PROPER FUNCTIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE BODIES......... 97

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE INFIRMITIES AND DANGERS TO WHICH REPRESENTA-

TIVE GOVERNMENT IS LIABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................. 120

CHAPTER VII.

of TRUE AND FALSE DEMOCRACY ; REPRESENTATION OF ALL,

AND REPRESENTATION OF THE MAJORITY ONLY .................. 144

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE EXTENSION OF THE SUFFRAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . © to e o 'o to $ to e o so go e o is is & s 169

CHAPTER IX.

SHOULD THERE BE TWO STAGES OF ELECTION?.................... 196