e nation, as against the
Executive. In England, on the contrary, its efficiency has been such
that it has worked out for itself channels of effective operation, such
as to dispense with its direct use, and avoid the inconveniences which
might be attendant upon that use. A vote of the House of Commons,
declaring a withdrawal of its confidence, has always sufficed for the
purpose of displacing a Ministry; nay, persistent obstruction of its
measures, and even lighter causes, have conveyed the hint, which has
been obediently taken. But the people, how is it with them? Do not the
people in England part with their power, and make it over to the House
of Commons, as completely as the American people part with it to the
President? They give it over for four years: we for a period which on
the average is somewhat more: they, to resume it at a fixed time; we, on
an unfixed contingency, and at a time which will finally be determined,
not according to the popular will, but according to the views which a
Ministry may entertain of its duty or convenience.

All this is true; but it is not the whole truth. In the United Kingdom,
the people as such cannot commonly act upon the Ministry as such. But
mediately, though not immediately, they gain the end: for they can work
upon that which works upon the Ministry, namely, on the House of
Commons. Firstly, they have not renounced, like the American people, the
exercise of their power for a given time; and they are at all times free
by speech, petition, public meeting, to endeavor to get it back in full
by bringing about a dissolution. Secondly, in a Parliament with nearly
660 members, vacancies occur with tolerable frequency; and, as they are
commonly filled up forthwith, they continually modify the color of the
Parliament, conformably, not to the past, but to the present feeling of
the nation; or, at least, of the constituency, which for practical
purposes is different indeed, yet not very different. But, besides
exercising a limited positive influence on the present, they supply a
much less limited indication of the future. Of the members who at a
given time sit in the House of Commons, the vast majority, probably more
than nine-tenths, have the desire to sit there again, after a
dissolution which may come at any moment. They therefore study political
weather-wisdom, and in varying degrees adapt themselves to the
indications of the sky. It will now be readily perceived how the popular
senti