al will to be best expressed
through a plebiscite at which a question was presented without the
possibilities of the divisive effects of public discussion. The natural
impulses of human nature would make for more uniform and beneficial
decisions than the calculated self-interest that would follow discussion
and deliberation. English liberals like John Stuart Mill, of the latter
half of the nineteenth century, looked upon freedom of discussion and
free speech as the breath of life of a free society, and that tradition
has come down to us a little shaken by recent experience, but
substantially intact.

The development of advertising and of propaganda, particularly during
and since the world-war, has aroused a great many misgivings,
nevertheless, in regard to the traditional freedom of the press. Walter
Lippmann's thoughtful little volume, _Liberty and the News_, has stated
the whole problem in a new form and has directed attention to an
entirely new field for observation and study.

De Tocqueville, in his study of the early frontier, _Democracy in
America_, and James Bryce, in his _American Commonwealth_, have
contributed a good deal of shrewd observation to our knowledge of the
role of political opinion in the United States. The important attempts
in English to define public opinion as a social phenomenon and study it
objectively are A. V. Dicey's _Law and Opinion in England in the
Nineteenth Century_ and A. Lawrence Lowell's _Public Opinion and Popular
Government_. Although Dicey's investigation is confined to England and
to the nineteenth century, his analysis of the facts throws new light on
the nature of public opinion in general. The intimate relation between
the press and parliamentary government in England is revealed in an
interesting historical monograph by Michael Macdonagh, _The Reporters'
Gallery_.

4. Legal Institutions and Law

Public law came into existence in an effort of the community to deal
with conflict. In achieving this result, however, courts of law
invariably have sought to make their decisions first in accordance with
precedent, and second in accordance with common sense. The latter
insured that the law would be administered equitably; the former that
interpretations of the law would be consistent. Post says:

Jural feelings are principally feelings of indignation as when
an injustice is experienced by an individual, a feeling of fear
as when an individual is affected by an