n boroughs and some in counties were
chosen by the local party associations, and appealed to the Liberal
electors on the ground of having been so chosen. In 1885, and again in
1892, all, or nearly all, new Liberal candidates were so chosen, and a
man offering himself against the nominee of the association was
denounced as an interloper and traitor to the party. The same process
has been going on in the Tory party, though more slowly. The influence
of the locally wealthy, and also that of the central party office, is
somewhat greater among the Tories, but in course of time choice by
representative associations will doubtless become the rule."[5] Is it to
be expected that this power will not be abused as in America? The
trouble is that no association can represent all the party electors, and
that the representative becomes responsible to the managers of the
association, to whom he really owes his election. Any control of this
kind is fatal to the principle of responsible leadership. And yet the
only alternative with the present method of election is the break-up of
the party system. This is the dilemma in which all modern democracies
are placed. The evil will be completely obviated by the reform. Instead
of limiting the candidates, it will be to the advantage of each party to
induce the strongest and most popular candidates to stand on its behalf,
since the number of seats it will obtain depends only on the aggregate
votes polled by all the candidates. With individual candidature there
can be no "machine" control of nominations. All are free to appeal
directly to the people.

+Localization of Politics.+--The local delegate is unfortunately the
prevailing type of Australian politician. The value of a member is too
often measured by the services he renders to his constituents
individually or the amount of money he can get the Government to spend
in his constituency. Hence the nefarious practice of log-rolling in
Parliament. Is it any wonder that some of the colonies promise to rival
France in the proportion of unreproductive works constructed out of loan
money?

How few of our members approach the ideal expressed by Edmund Burke in
his address to the electors of Bristol:--"Parliament is not a congress
of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests
each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and
advocates; but Parliament is a deliberative assembly of our nation, with
one interes