the United States such a thing as a Congressman deserting one party for the other is practically unknown.  In Great Britain, on the contrary, party lines do continually change as new issues arise; and when they are founded on questions of public policy it must be so.  What gives them permanence is that certain principles underlie most questions, and men who have the same political principles are likely to think the same on any single question; and further that a member would rather follow his party and sacrifice his opinion on a single question than sacrifice most of his principles.

Therefore, even if the Americans do succeed in purifying their politics, they will be faced with the same difficulty as exists elsewhere—­namely, such improved organization as will secure the return of representatives on questions of general public policy only.  The present system of single-membered electorates will not suffice.  The only remedy lies in enlarged electorates with electoral machinery which will organize public opinion into two definite lines of policy, and will, by allowing individual candidature merge the primary election into the actual election.

All this involves a radical alteration, both in the Constitution and in the methods of election.  But the United States have the great advantage over France that it does not involve also a serious change in the national character.  It is not unlikely that some such reform must be brought about before long.

The present position cannot last.  The Republican party has so long identified itself with Capital in all its forms, with the protected monopolists, the trusts and the corporations, that the mass of Labour threatens to support the Democrats; and as the latter party maintains the doctrines of direct government and the infallibility of the majority, the result will be such a financial crisis and such an industrial revolution that the Americans will have at last to admit that their government needs total reconstruction.

+Australia.+—­On the first day of the nineteenth century the Union of the Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland was accomplished; on the first day of the twentieth century Britain’s daughters in the southern seas will inaugurate, under her aegis, a new experiment in democracy—­the Australian Commonwealth.  The time is opportune, then, for a review of the tendencies of Australian politics, and for a comparison with the other great democracies.  Thus only can we attempt to cast the horoscope of the new nation.

Australia starts with many advantages over France and America.  The science of government is better understood now than when they started; the folly of placing too many checks on the people is recognized; and the British system of responsible leadership by a cabinet in the legislature is fully developed.  All these features are embodied in the Constitution, and it only remains for the people to prove their fitness to work it.