ing both the Australian and the American democracies astray. On the
contrary, it is the irresponsible despotism which is exercised by the
"bosses" in America and the newspapers in Australia which is really
incompatible with free government.

The source of the error lies in the failure to grasp the meaning of the
term "responsible leadership." It is assumed that either the people must
lead and the representatives follow, or the representatives must lead
and the people follow. Bagehot may be taken as an exponent of the latter
position. He thought that cabinet government was only possible with a
deferential nation as opposed to a democratic nation. England he held to
be the type of deferential nations, because the people were content to
leave the government to the "great governing families"--_i.e._, to defer
to caste, which is in principle the same as deferring to a king, who is
supposed to rule by divine right. Mr. Bradford also gives a somewhat
exaggerated idea of the importance of the force of personality when he
declares that the mass of the people have no "views" on public
questions; all they want is to be well governed. The late Professor
Freeman Snow, of Harvard University, U.S., was a supporter of the
ultra-democratic view. In the "Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science" for July, 1892, he declares:--

Mr. Bryce thinks that, "like other crowds, a legislature must be
led and ruled." And he has formulated a theory which he believes to
be "the essence of free or popular government, and the
justification for vesting power in numbers." "Every question that
arises in the conduct of government," he asserts, "is either a
question of ends or a question of means." And as the "masses are
better judges of what will conduce to their happiness than are
the-classes placed above them, they must be allowed to determine
ends." But, assuming the end to be given, they--the masses--should
leave to their leaders--the trained statesmen--the choice of means.
The defect in this theory is that it depends for its successful
operation upon the continued "deference of the multitude for the
classes placed above them ... upon the principle of _noblesse
oblige_," a principle, by the way, derived from feudal monarchy,
which has no existence in the United States, and which ought to be
considered a misfortune in any free country....

Mr. Br