ontinual responsibility of members to their
constituents, Mr. Syme would also make the individual ministers of state
responsible to a majority of the members. He adds:--"The whole system of
party government could in this manner be quietly and effectively got rid
of." We do not propose to criticise the latter suggestion, as we do not
believe it would be put forward to-day, in the light of fuller
knowledge. Mr. Syme's book was written nearly twenty years ago. But, as
regards the continual responsibility of members, we consider it
important that the electors should not have their way on single
questions. They should periodically express their opinion as to the
general line of progress, and the representatives should then have
complete control. The necessity for this is to save the people from
their anti-social tendencies, which we have already stated as the great
objection to all forms of direct government. Lord Macaulay once defined
the position exactly in a letter addressed to the electors of Edinburgh.
"My opinion," he declared, "is that electors ought at first to choose
cautiously; then to confide liberally; and when the term for which they
have selected their member has expired to review his conduct equitably,
and to pronounce on the whole taken together."

We hope to have left on the reader's mind by this time no doubt as to
the intimate connection between the machinery of election and the
resulting character of the legislature. Now it is a most extraordinary
fact that this connection is hardly noticed by the leading
constitutional authorities. It is true they often recognize that
suggested changes like the Hare system would debase our legislatures,
but it never seems to occur to them that present evils might be cured by
a change in the electoral machinery. They point out the evils indeed,
but only to indulge in gloomy forebodings at the onward march of
democracy, or as warnings of the necessity for placing checks on the
people.

Take Bagehot's study of the House of Commons in his standard work on
"The English Constitution," where he classifies the functions exercised
by the House. He insists that the most important of these is the
elective function--its power to elect and dismiss the ministry. In
addition, it exercises an expressive function, a teaching function, an
informing function, and, lastly, the function of legislation. But not a
word is said of the relation of these functions to representation, or to
the m