in the way in which it is already met in the case of the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners or the Port of London Authority--by setting up, under an
Act of Parliament, an appropriate body in each case, and by leaving to
it a large degree of freedom of action, subject to the terms of the Act
and to the inalienable power of Parliament to alter the Act. In such a
case the Act could define how the authority should be constituted, on
what principles its functions should be performed, and how its profits,
if it made profits, should be distributed. And I suggest that there is
no reason why the Post Office itself should not be dealt with in this
way.

It is only a fleeting and superficial survey which I have been able to
give of the vast and complex themes on which I have touched; and there
is no single one of them with which I have been able to deal fully. My
purpose has been to show that in the political sphere as well as in the
social and economic spheres vast tasks lie before Liberalism, and,
indeed, that our social and economic tasks are not likely to be
efficiently performed unless we give very serious thought to the
political problem. Among the heavy responsibilities which lie upon our
country in the troubled time upon which we are entering, there is none
more heavy than the responsibility which rests upon her as the pioneer
of parliamentary government--the responsibility of finding the means
whereby this system may be made a respected and a trustworthy instrument
for the labours of reconstruction that lie before us.




THE STATE AND INDUSTRY