25 APRIL 1903, Page 13

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

The Theory and Practice of the English Government. By T. F. Moran, Ph.D. (Longman and Co. 5s. net.)—English readers will find much that is interesting and profitable in Prdesior Moran's book, containing, as it does, the observations and conclu- sions of an experienced and benevolent critic. Some thing's which we are liable to overlook or take for granted he makes prominent. He gives, for instance, an analysis of the personnel of the House of Commons. Some thirty-odd years ago an American writer described the House as containing " rows of well-fed fox-hunters and billiard-players, lordlings and parvenus." Yet there are but sixty-nine persons whose employment does not admit of classification. Not quite a fourth are connected with the law ; a sixth are described by the term "politician," a term which connotes independent means; merchants are a twelfth ; journalism and the teaching profession number between them thirty-eight; the Army counts forty-five ; the Navy three. There is one pilot, and one novelist, and nine Labour Members. In the American House of Representatives the lawyers claim two-thirds. There has been of late years a recrudescence of the doctrine of "Divine Right" as connected with legitimacy. Devotees of this absurdity should read what Professor Moran says of it.