legislators? Why, in respect to matters which properly lie outside of the sphere of legislation, in respect to private and special legislation, in respect to corporations and interests of that kind, in geueral, legislation relating to industrial matters. People trust immense powers over business interests to legislators whom, individually, they would not trust with a thousand dollars under circumstances such that the trust could safely be repudiated, and the money kept. Again, in respect to what matters is there most corruption in the executive branch of the government? The answer plainly is, in performing those functions which a government ought not to perform. We have 'only to contrast the corruption in post-office appointments with that in appointments to the army or to the bench, to perceive the truth of the

answer.

It is not a cause for political pessimism that a popular government (which is the only kind of government that can exist at present in civilized nations) becomes corrupt as soon as it attempts to do work or to regulate matters which should be left for other agencies to do or to regulate. On the contrary, it is a cause of encouragement for the future. Of course, no organ of society can perform work which belongs to other organs, without causing injury to the society; but if, in its assumption of improper functions, it seemed to work well for a while, there woull be small hope that men would be deterred from laying the work upon it by representations of remote evils. If, for example, the government carried the mails efficiently, or secured a really good system of public education, it would be much harder to object to the postoffice or to public schools; but since from the beginning all through to the end, the government in assuming these functions, performs them badly, becomes corrupt in performing them, and causes incidental evils greater than the benefits secured, there is some hope that men will come to see things as they are, and abolish the per

formance of these works by the government before the end is reached.

A few nights ago the mayor of Boston transmitted to the Council a certified copy of a recent act of the Legislature, which makes it imperative upon the city to ap point an inspector of electric wires. The increase in the amount of government inspection which has taken place in the last few years is remarkable. We have inspectors of buildings, inspectors of milk, inspectors of bridges, inspectors of factories

there is hardly a branch of business. which is not subject to government espionage of some sort. There is, of course, no logical halting place, if once the principle of inspection is admitted. It would plainly be inconsistent to have an inspector of milk, and not have an inspector of meat. The logical outcome would be that one half of the people would be engaged in seeing that the other half conducted themselves and their business properly. This system has been tried many times, in many places, and has invariably failed; it becomes intolerable, and the people throw it off; or the civilization becomes mechanical and progress is arrested, as in the cases of ancient Peru and China. Nor does the system accomplish its purpose. Persons engaged in building know how to get the approval of the inspector of buildings without making their work conform to the requirements of the law. It is not to be expected that our legislators should acquaint themselves with these facts. They see, or some one suggests to them, that electric wires are dangerous, and forthwith they pass a law that the wires shall be inspected-totally unaware that, in the light of human experience, their remedy is as absurd as the exorcisms of the savage medicine man against witchcraft. But if the men whose occupations are inspected can see that the system works badly from the start, is it too much to hope that they will take steps to abolish the system before it contributes much to the arrest of civilization, or at least that they will cause the adoption of it to be a

little slow, till a generation wiser than themselves come upon the stage?

If, then, the political corruption of which we complain is due, in the main, to our trying to accomplish by political methods what could be accomplished better by other methods, it is evident that the remedy is to cease from this attempt, and that no other remedy will be effective. But to make the change is by no means easy. A representative government is almost as tenacious of its prerogatives as a monarchial government; and there are no established agencies through which force can be brought to bear upon it to make it part with its usurpations. Probably most men have not much faith in governmental agencies in the abstract, theoretically; but when it comes to a concrete case, the tendency is to let the government try its hand at regulating. Moreover, men are much inclined to acquiesce in evils to which they are accustomed, or evils which appear gradually; and they have been so accustomed to enduring evils from their governments for the last well, how many thousands of years, that an evil from this source must be very grave indeed to arouse sufficient resistance to effect its discontinuance. Still, a few symptoms may be discerned. The more recent State Constitutions, most of them, at any rate, notably that of California, restrict the powers of the Legislatures very much, and there seems to be a slight sentiment growing up in the country at large for a stricter interpretation of the Federal Constitution than has prevailed since the civil war. But there is much reason to think that for a long time to come the country will suffer from overlegislation and over-administration.

If, however, the corruption in our politics is due, or partly due, to a decline in the morality of the people, a remedy will prove much more diflicult to find. This country was settled chiefly by people of the English middle class, in whom the sentiment for conduct (to adopt Matthew Arnold's phrase) was very strong. They were very earnest to "know the right, and to do it," to "walk by the best light they had," though it is to be feared that in many cases they did not display much wisdom in seeking for the right and that their light was not always of the best quality. At present there seems to be a transition. The descendants of these people are awakening to the fact that their ideal of life was unattrac

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tive and insufficient. A great many have. escaped from the prison of Puritanism," and are, perhaps, inclined to under-estimate the importance of right conduct, upon which Puritanism insisted along with much else that is not essential. There is no reason, however, to suppose that the present movement is anything more than a reaction against a defective type of religion, in which the feeling for conduct is temporarily obscured. The decline of political morality is explicable by the mistaken perversion of political agencies to ends for which they are not adapted, without assuming a serious. decline in the morality of the people.

It might at first be supposed that corruption in the legislative and executive branches of government would be as injurious as corruption in the other branch; that it is as important that good laws should be enacted, and that the government should be honestly administered, as that the courts should interpret and apply the laws impartially. But the vital and essential function of government is the administration of justice, and it is surely more important that this supreme function should be discharged well than that land grants and grants of franchises should be made honestly, or that the postal service should be economical and efficient. This function is not now discharged well; not enough money or attention is devoted to it. The cost of vicious legislation and corrupt administration is so great that enough money cannot be spared for the proper support of an adequate number of courts, and needed reforms are neglected. In many States the salaries of judges are so small that only inferior men are attracted to the bench. The most that can be said is, that there is comparatively little corruption in the courts, and that they perform their duties as well as could be expected under the circumstances.

The corruption in our politics is not so great, or of so dangerous a kind, as that which prevailed at Rome toward the close of the Republic. It is, however, an evil itself, and is indicative of other and greater evils; it also seems to be increasing. As its evils and the evils of which it is symptomatic are perceived more clearly, attention will be more and more called to it, some of its causes will be discovered, and remedies will be tried, wrong ones first, doubtless, but perhaps at last the right one.