CHAPTER I.

THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION.


Old establishments, like the British Constitution, said Edmund Burke,
"are not often constructed after any theory; theories are rather drawn
from them." In setting out on an endeavour to understand the principles
underlying political representation, the saying expresses exactly the
course which should be followed. The inquiry is the more necessary as,
although representation more than anything else in the domain of
government distinguishes the modern from the ancient world, the ideas
which prevail as to the part it has played, is playing, and is destined
to play on the world's stage are not merely hazy, but extremely
inaccurate. The intimate connection of representation with the progress
which has followed its introduction is so little recognized that the
most advanced democracies are now willing to listen to any proposal to
return to direct government. In spite of the fact that the nineteenth
century has witnessed the triumph of the historical method in most
fields of social inquiry, the dangers of _a priori_ speculation on
political institutions are as much in evidence as when Burke wrote.

If we would understand, then, the meaning of representative
institutions, it is in the gradual development of the "mother of
parliaments" that we must seek for the most reliable information. We
must be careful, however, to leave out of sight those features of the
growth of the British Constitution which are merely the expression of
transitory social conditions, and to confine our attention to the