The Philosophy of Government. By George W. Walthew. (G. P.
Putnam's Sons.) — This is a curious and characteristically American book, suggestive of Machiavelli and of Maeterlinck, and full of the Grand Design and the National Design on the one hand, and of details for the management of cities on the other. Mr. Walthew is an earnest and patient thinker who has meditated much on the mystery of the universe and the problems of civil society. He is a fascinating but not specially lucid thinker, whose main position in regard to government may be gathered from his chapter on "The Double Aspect of the People," in which he says : "The public in matters of detail is a terrible blunderer whose interminable mistakes bring ruin, death, and desolation. It cannot protect its own liberties. It is worse than a little child in passing laws. It is utterly incapable of selecting its own leaders. It is forever setting up rascals and crucifying Christe." While there is much that is misty, if not mystical, in Mr. Walthew's volume, there is also not a little shrewdness, as is shown in his exposition of the weaknesses of the Referendum and in his remarks upon the government of great cities, in an appendix he gives what he calls a city charter for America,—a scheme in which all the powers of the city are vested in a Council consisting of a single Chamber composed of a hundred members, and with the administration of affairs in the hands of the Mayor and eight of the members, who are entitled super- visors, and who form the Executive Committee (Cabinet), with the Mayor (Premier) at their head. This book is one to quicken reflection.
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