glossaries. Shop hours and holidays, the period of work and the scale of wages, labour disputes and demands, modes and rates of travel, the carriage of goods and mutual liability, are prescribed and regulated. Education, science and art, stage plays, theatres and music halls, are brought, in varying ways and degrees, within the purview of the Government. Roads, canals, tolls, and bridges, open spaces and allotments, the pollution of rivers and the construction of light railways, the confirmation of County Council orders and the approval or rejection of bye-laws, the protection of wild birds, and the prevention of cruelty to children, with many other miscellaneous matters, are subjected to rules to which unquestioning obedience must be rendered.

A little volume by Mr Bernard Houghton, entitled 'Bureaucratic Government: a Study of Indian Polity,' traces the transition from autocracy to bureaucracy in our vast Oriental dominions. The position taken by the author, a retired member of the Indian Civil Service, is that, although the ancient personal touch between the ruler and the ruled has vanished, yet, if efficiency be the crown and the glory of government, the modern system of Indian rule is, without question, efficient. But he makes the pertinent enquiry whether a bureaucracy such as governs India is likely to discern the signs and dangers of altered conditions, which are still changing, so as to set its house in order and govern on more popular and generous lines. His answer, as he admits with regret, is an emphatic negative :

'If experience in history teaches clearly any one lesson, it is that a bureaucracy will in no circumstances reform itself. If it is to be reformed at all, it must be by powers outside it and antagonistic to it.... And if against reform in general, how much more against reforms which must abrogate official prerogatives, undermine their authority, and transfer powers hitherto wielded by officials alone to the hands of the common people. A bureaucracy will never consent to such a profanation' (p. 177).

The concluding chapter in Mr Houghton's book, entitled, 'Towards Democracy,' deserves careful perusal. It casts a vivid sidelight upon the main theme of the present article.

The principal offices which exercise jurisdiction over domestic affairs are the following. First of all there is the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, to whom the Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue are subordinate, is mainly responsible for collecting the taxes. The Postmaster-General is responsible for an army of servants, and for the performance of many duties besides the conveyance of letters and telegrams. An extensive and varied range of mercantile subjects come within the scope of the Board of Trade. The Boards of Education and of Agriculture have undergone rapid expansion, and new functions have recently been assigned to them. The Commissioners of Woods and Forests, the Office of Works and Buildings, the Charity, the Lunacy, the Civil Service, the Ecclesiastical and the Railway Commissions, and a number of other specific departments, have their allotted duties, some of them traditional and formal, and all of them differing in degree of importance. The Judiciary comprises many branches of legal administration, from the Lord Chancellor, through successive gradations, down to County Court judges. Numerous offices similar to the above exist in Scotland and Ireland; and the persons employed therein, and in other branches of public and local administration, are, approximately, 100,000.

To take some of these departments in detail-the Home Office is a kind of general-utility actor on the public stage. It employs 200 factory inspectors, 7 inspectors of explosives, and 47 for mines, besides others for anatomy, inebriates, aliens, reformatories, and cruelty to animals. The Home Secretary exercises control over the quasi-military police force and the prisons, appoints stipendiary magistrates, and advises on the exercise of the prerogative of mercy. He is the medium of communication between the Sovereign and the people; he is generally responsible for the maintenance of the public peace, and for the enforcement of rules made for the internal well-being of the community.

The Board of Trade and Plantations, to give it the full title, was originally a Committee of the Privy Council. Chambers of Commerce and the mercantile community are not enamoured of its procedure in respect of bankruptcy and the winding-up of limited companies.

Employers and workpeople do not find the Labour Department by any means perfect. Nor are representatives of the shipping interest, in which so many millions of capital are embarked and which represents the larger part of the world's carrying trade, satisfied with the manner in which they are treated. Whether the heterogeneous functions of the Board of Trade are worth the half-million per annum which is the total cost of this somewhat cumbrous branch of government is open to question. The President not long since created an additional assistant secretaryship, making six in all, at salaries from 1000l. to 1500l. The only intimation appeared in the newspapers. Parliament was not consulted, nor was its sanction obtained. This appears to be the custom, judging from what has occurred recently in the Foreign and Colonial Offices and elsewhere.

Presumably, the consent of the ubiquitous Treasury was given in the above cases; but, when My Lords of the Treasury are pleased to direct' that something be done, it means that all the needful arrangements have been made by the head of a department. A rigid control is exercised over other Government offices in appointments and in spending, and the practical effect is to uphold the authority of the Treasury. This dominating body, technically described as 'The Commissioners for executing the office of Lord Treasurer,' comprises, first and foremost, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, then the First Lord of the Treasury, who may be also Prime Minister, as at present. In the latter capacity he has quite enough to occupy his time and attention with questions of general policy and with the leadership of the House. Next come the Financial Secretary and the Patronage Secretary, or Chief Whip. Finally, at an immense distance in point of authority, are the Junior Lords of the Treasury, whose duties were defined by Lord Melbourne to be, 'to make a House, to keep a House, and to cheer the Minister.' In modern times, their chief duty, in common with other subordinate appendages of the Ministry, appears to consist in addressing party meetings all over the country, especially during byeelections. The real power of the Treasury is exercised by the permanent staff-distinguished and capable men, of wide experience and high character, but inheriting by

tradition a kind of corporate omniscience and omnipotence. An unconstitutional practice has grown up of granting thousands of pounds for commercial, educational, or scientific objects, or for local or sectional purposes. This method, like grants-in-aid generally, and like the vast sums apportioned by the Development and Road Improvement Boards, is objectionable and needs to be checked. The Road Board receives annually from the Exchequer about 600,000l., being the net proceeds of the Motor Spirit duty; and the Development Board has a grant of half a million. These vast sums are disbursed practically without control. There are, of course, sundry Commissioners at 1000l. each, and the customary official staff, with excellent salaries.

How wide are the powers that can be exercised, nominally by Cabinet Ministers, but really by high officials, though ostensibly in the public interest, is shown by an incident that occurred in 1912. A Government Bill was quietly engineered through Parliament, by which an extensive freehold property and a choice and valuable library of 200,000 volumes, the whole worth at least 300,000l., was alienated from the London Institution, Finsbury Circus. This was done in defiance of a Royal Charter of 1807 and an Act of 1821, which created a body corporate, with perpetual succession and absolute powers over the property. The prescribed objects were 'to promote the diffusion of Literature, Science, and the Arts, by means of lectures and experiments, and by easy access to extensive collections of books, both ancient and modern, in all languages.' In the pursuit of these objects valuable public services were rendered during a lengthened period. Owing to changed conditions in City life, the Board of Managers had been occupied for some time in devising methods for enlarging the scope and increasing the usefulness of the Institution. Authority for this was given by the Proprietors, acting under the following clause of their Charter: We will, constitute, and grant that the whole property of the Institution shall be vested, and we hereby vest the same, solely and absolutely in the Proprietors; and that they shall have full power and authority to sell, alienate, charge, or otherwise dispose of the same, as they shall think proper.' Nothing could be more explicit and positive as to the