such caprice entails another evil. The
only mode by which a cohesive majority and a lasting administration can
be upheld in a Parliamentary government, is party organisation; but
that organisation itself tends to aggravate party violence and party
animosity. It is, in substance, subjecting the whole nation to the rule
of a section of the nation, selected because of its speciality.
Parliamentary government is, in its essence, a sectarian government,
and is possible only when sects are cohesive.

Thirdly. A Parliament, like every other sort of sovereign, has peculiar
feelings, peculiar prejudices, peculiar interests; and it may pursue
these in opposition to the desires, and even in opposition to the
well-being of the nation. It has its selfishness as well as its caprice
and its parties.

The mode in which the regulating wheel of our Constitution produces its
effect is plain. It does not impair the authority of Parliament as a
species, but it impairs the power of the individual Parliament. It
enables a particular person outside Parliament to say, "You Members of
Parliament are not doing your duty. You are gratifying caprice at the
cost of the nation. You are indulging party spirit at the cost of the
nation. You are helping yourself at the cost of the nation. I will see
whether the nation approves what you are doing or not; I will appeal
from Parliament No. 1 to Parliament No. 2."

By far the best way to appreciate this peculiar provision of our
Constitution is to trace it in action--to see, as we saw before of the
other powers of English royalty, how far it is dependent on the
existence of an hereditary king, and how far it can be exercised by a
Premier whom Parliament elects. When we examine the nature of the
particular person required to exercise the power, a vivid idea of that
power is itself brought home to us.

First. As to the caprice of Parliament in the choice of a Premier, who
is the best person to check it? Clearly the Premier himself. He is the
person most interested in maintaining his administration, and therefore
the most likely person to use efficiently and dexterously the power by
which it is to be maintained. The intervention of an extrinsic king
occasions a difficulty. A capricious Parliament may always hope that
his caprice may coincide with theirs. In the days when George III.
assailed his Governments, the Premier was habitually deprived of his
due authority. Intrigues were encouraged because it was