THE WORKING CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND ITS OUTGROWTHS.*

Mn. LEONARD COURTNEY, banished by circumstances from • the House of Commons, has devoted a portion of his leisure to describing, in little more than three hundred pretty closely printed pages, that ever-changing entity, the British Constitu- tion, as he has observed it with his finger on "the pulse of the machine." The result is a work something between a book to be read and a book of reference, full of accurate infor- mation, full of good sense, which will speedily find its way into the libraries of most men who occupy themselves much with public affairs.

It is divided into three parts,—the first entitled " Parlia- ment " ; the second, "Institutions Subordinate to Parlia- ment," viz., the judicial system, the Church, local government, and the land laws in England, Scotland, and Ireland; while the third treats of our foreign relations, our Colonies and dependencies in so far as they are connected with or affected by Parliament.

Mr. Courtney's treatise, for treatise is its proper name, has nothing in common with Bagehot's brilliant essay on the

Constitution, which it is a delight to read. He might have put upon his title-page Non eat cantandum, but for a long time to come his chapters will be conned by studious youths preparing for their examinations at the Universities, and by some of the same readers a dozen years later, when the possi- bility of entering Parliament has grown into a probability, while they are yet separated by a pretty long interval from the days when they will be engaged in passing or stopping Bills :—

"Which stopped or passed leave England much the same. Alas for genius staked on such a game!

When as the gaerdon in the grasp appears Comes the blind fury with the abhorred shears."

From the fiist section these studious youths will learn how the various portions of the Legislature came to have their present relative position and authority, how the House of Cninifizone was Constituted down to the Union with Scotland, Constitution Kingdons—ana its ChstgrOlotha. By IN6601/4tonithey. London : K. Dent nod Co. Re. 65.) and what was the nature of the very different body known as the Scots Parliament up to that event. Then they will arrive at an account of the House of Commons down to the Union with Ireland, and so be led on to the great changes made by that measure, as well as by the Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884. Next they will find a chapter on the privileges of the House of Commons, and one upon the House of Lords as it was and as it is, to which succeed all necessary details about the Crown, the Privy Council., the Cabinet, and those parts of out polity which are most closely connected with Parliament, understood as a collective term for King, Lords, and Commons.

It is only natural that Mr. Courtney, who has connected his name so much with the criticism of the defects which it is easy to discover in our existing rough-and-ready system of voting, should have given in his chapter on a General Election some account of Mr. Hare's system, and should have proposed for actual trial a modification of it. This modification, it appears, has been actually tried in Tasmania, at Hobart Town and Launceston, and is now going to be tried in the Colony at large. Other systems intended to produce the same results have been introduced, not without success, at least in the opinion of their advocates, both in Belgium and Switzerland. That the plan we now adopt is fraught with inconvenience there can be no doubt, but it seems questionable whether the country will be prepared to adopt a remedy until some very absurd consequence chances to follow from it.

Space will not allow us to do more with reference to Part II. than to remark that, wherever we have been able to check the information contained therein, it appears to be accurate and recent. In treating of Scotland, for instance, Mr. Courtney notices the amalgamation of the Free Church and the United Presbyterians, which is only a few months old and is about to be discussed in the Law Courts on both sides of the Tweed.

The third part of the work is not the least interesting. It contains six chapters, of which the first gives a brief and clear account of the very peculiar relations existing between this country and the Channel Islands, those relics of the original domains of the Conqueror, long since severed from the broad lands which he owned on the neighbouring con- tinent. In giving an account of Jersey, Mr. Courtney ob- serves: "The revenues of the island derived from greater tithes, seigneurial dues, rents and tolls, and a few Customs duties suffice to meet the ordinary charges of administration, so that no difficulties are provoked by resort to taxation; and in connection with this it must be observed that the cost of the military force in the island is defrayed out of the war budget of the United Kingdom." Does not this make the Briton, devoured by taxation, remember the saying of Sir William Gel that every good citizen should do all in his power to endow his country with liberal institutions, and then leave it for ever Next the Isle of Man and its Constitution come in for a notice which excites somewhat similar feelings, but, unhappily, its climate and its liability to invasion by hosts of semi-barbarians from the neighbouring coast neutralise some of its advantages.

The Crown Colonies are then passed in review, beginning with Gibraltar. Malta, which, in spite of its smallness, has a, perfect genius for giving trouble, comes next, and after it the unlucky Cyprus, whose acquisition was one of the foolishest proceedings of recent British Governments. We observe that in discussing the West Indian Islands Mr. Courtney expresses the opinion that the experiments likely to be made by the United States in the government of Cuba and Puerto Rico may give us some help. Possibly ! But Jamaica and its sisters must first be restored to something of the material prosperity which they had in old slavery days. We have more hope from the botanical wisdom of Mr. Morris than from any amount of political wisdom in those who have to rule these "Edens of the Western wave."

The third chapter deals with the self-governing Colonies, and gives a clear though brief account of their anomalous, though on the whole eminently satisfactory, relations with the Mother-country, some of the strangest which have ever prevailed in the world, relations which are com patible with the maintenance of hostile tariffs, with active participation on the part of considerable bodies of adven- turous men in the wars waged by the United Kingdom, and with an impatience of any bonds which may bring them closer than they are at present to our political system.

The fourth chapter is devoted to India. It is short, but gives an accurate though very general account of the machinery by which that country is administered. We agree with most of the opinions expressed ; but take leave to doubt whether anything would be gained by altering the form in which the Indian accounts are submitted to Parliament, or by the adoption of other devices which would increase the direct power of the Legislature over the Indian Empire. John Stuart Mill was right when he said, "India is a pro- fession, and those who would know anything about it must treat it as such." The India Office, whose delays are apt to break the hearts of Indian administrators, connects, in a very useful way, our great benevolent despotism in Asia with our crowned Republic at home, and no constitutional changes are at present wanted.

In the fifth chapter, which treats of foreign. relations, Mr. Courtney makes a very proper protest against a catchword which is often repeated. We are told from time to time that Governments must never be opposed when dealing with the external relations of the country. It is perfectly right that they should never be opposed, as they so constantly are in domestic affairs, for merely party purposes ; but questions from time to time arise in the conduct of foreign affairs in which the most patriotic persons not only may, but should, oppose the Government of the day with all their might and main. A case in point was the behaviour of Mr. Disraeli's Cabinet in connection with the series of events which began with the insurrection in the Herzegovina. Sensible people, on the Liberal side were entirely opposed to the use which Mr. Gladstone made of some of these events, and gave much sympathy to the Foreign Office of that day. When, however, Lord Derby left the Conservative Government, and Mr. Disraeli entered upon a new and, as it seemed to many dangerous course of policy, he not only lost the support, but incurred the active hostility, of the very people who refused some months before to have anything to do with the attack upon him. That was as it should be, and the same may be said of the opposition to his Afghan policy.

We are glad to observe that Mr. Courtney notes the fact that recruiting by limited competition has produced an im- provement in the personnel of our diplomatic service. That it might be further improved we doubt not. He is quite right in thinking that the very high standard of preparation now required does not necessarily make those who pass through it better acquainted with the conditions of political life either abroad or at home, but it is difficult to see what change in the plan of selection could effect an improvement in this respect. Sympathy with the political life of the country in which the diplomatist happens to be stationed is much to be wished for, but how to attain it is a difficult problem. And sometimes a keen interest in the politics of a particular country may make the diplomatist too friendly to some section in it. Those who have followed closely the foreign affairs of their time will be able to recall an Ambassador, now long dead, who was too admirably acquainted with German affairs to have been an altogether impartial channel of communication between Berlin and London, and another who knew neither too much nor too little.

A chapter on the future growth of the Constitution con- cludes the work, and treats of the question of Imperial Federation. It will not satisfy the dreamers who imagine that the great old Parliament of Westminster is going to abdicate in favour of some brand-new assembly. The blatant type of Jingo Imperialist will, we suppose, dislike it: the Strong Englander, on the other hand (and all sensible, well- informed Englishmen are Strong Englanders), will find much in it worthy of his reflection. When we get the results we get from our present relations with the Colonies, results of the kind we have witnessed during the past year and a half, why need we complain that our connection with the Colonies is too weak ?

The book is written with an absence of party spirit which would be commendable in any one, but is especially so when the writer is the protagonist of a view diametrically opposed to that which was rightly supported by the great majority of his countrymen during the period in which he was pre- paring it for the Press. Ucre arc the words in which he sums up what he has to say on the subject most nearly connected with the burning question of late so closely identified with his name :—

" In 1877 the Imperial Parliament passed an Act for the Federation of the Queen's Dominions in South Africa. The Colonial Secretary for the time was the same person who held the seals of the Colonial Office when the Canadian Act was intro- duced and passed in 1867. He seems to have thought that that which had grown in North America might be transplanted to South Africa. The Act became law after much opposition, with an amendment limiting its operation to five years, at the end of which it expired without anything having been done or even attempted under its provisions. Another South African con- federation is anticipated by many as the ultimate sequel of the war now (1900) being waged in South Africa, but it must be left to history to reveal the final solution of the contest."