which becomes a torrent. Apparently there has been an improvement lately
in many respects, but we are yet a long way from perfection.

There will be an immense dead weight of influence against economy owing
to the fact that so many persons are interested in keeping up and
increasing expenditure. As was said in the debate above referred to, "It
looks as if London were becoming a huge bureaucratic town where everyone
will be working in some Government department or other." One might say
everyone of all ages, remembering a remark made by someone entering a
building near Whitehall, and seeing the crowd of girls and boys in the
corridor, "I thought I was coming to a Government office, but it seems
to be a crêche."

For efficiency as well as for economy a thorough revision of the
executive departments of the Government is necessary. There is no doubt
that the present system has grown up at haphazard. It would be difficult
for anyone to form a clear idea of the duties assigned to or powers
conferred on the various departments, to say who in each department has
authority to do certain acts, or is responsible for seeing that they are
done properly.

To get the best account of the executive departments in England as they
existed before the War we must go to America. Professor A.L. Lowell's
book may be taken as the standard work on that subject. The chapters on
the Executive Departments, the Treasury, and the Civil Service give a
clear and interesting account of the administrative arrangements of the
British Government. He shows how new departments have grown up from time
to time to meet some new want as it arose, but their powers are often
ill defined. Various Boards were created, but in some cases it became an
established practice that the Board should not meet, or a Committee of