On Parliamentary Government in England

my notes had been collected when engaged in the investigation of questions not of mere local or temporary significance, but capable of general application, led me to think that, if the result were embodied in the form of a treatise on parliamentary government as administered in Great Britain, it might prove of practical value both in England and her colonies; and that in the constitutional states of continental Europe it might serve to make more clearly known the peculiar features of that form of government, which has been so often admired, but never successfully imitated. I therefore determined to avail myself of the resources of the well-stored library under my charge, and attempt the compilation of a work which, while trenching as little as possible on ground already worthily occupied by former writers, should aim at supplying information upon branches of constitutional knowledge hitherto overlooked.

I proposed at first to prepare, more especially for colonial use, a manual which should include a dissertation upon the peculiar features of Responsible Government' in the colonies. But I decided, after much reflection on the subject, to change my plan, and to confine myself to the exposition of parliamentary government in England. I arrived at this conclusion, firstly, from a conviction that the safest guide to the colonies, whose institutions are professedly modelled upon those of the mother-country, will be found in a detailed account of the system which prevails in the parent state; and, secondly, because parliamentary government in our colonies is still in its infancy, and its success is as yet but problematical.

The well-understood wishes of the people as expressed through their representatives' has indeed been the acknowledged maxim of colonial rule; and, so far as they are applicable to colonial society, the principles of the British Constitution have, in the main, been faithfully carried out. But it is easy to foresee that some considerable modifications must at no distant day be introduced into the fabric of colonial government, to enable it to resist the encroachments of the tide of democratic ascendency, which is everywhere uprising, and threatening to overwhelm the powers that be.' Most of the British colonies still enjoy the advantage of an immense extent of unoccupied territory, affording to industrious men of the humblest class the opportunity of becoming landowners, and of achieving a degree of comfort and independence which naturally inclines them to be supporters of law and order. Nevertheless, from an observation of the working of our municipal institutions in Canada, and of the characteristics and results of responsible government in the British dependencies generally, it is evident that the democratic element is everywhere gaining the mastery, and is seeking the overthrow of all institutions that are intended to be a check upon the popular will.

The great and increasing defect in all parliamentary governments, whether provincial or imperial, is the weakness of executive authority. It may be difficult to concede to the governor of a colony the same amount of deference and respect which is accorded to an English sovereign. But any political system which is based upon the monarchical principle must concede

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