770 770 . 570 When Mary Died. By Katharine Michael MacDonagh 643 Tynan 450 Who are the Vulgar? 380 Chanties. By J. H. Knight-Adkin 130 October 21. By George Meredith 422 Opportunity. By C. D. W. Ramah. By B. Paul Neuman Slumber-Songs of the Madonna. By Alfred Noyes 706 . 322 Roosevelt. By William H. Draper 56 797 Lyttleton 386 Small Yet So Great. By Michael 578 By Ethel Eternal Prospect, The. By Hand- Clifford 194 258 Song of Time, A. (From the Ger- lated by Fred G. Bowles To Chopin. By Ethel Clifford Westminster. By Sidney Olivier Trans- Lament. By F. J. Patmore 66 You and I. By A. G. B 642 514 By E. L. : 642 514 642 386 2 450 706 The Old Adam. IV. Eighteenth V. The Paralysis of the Constitution. By Professor A. V. Dicey The Work of J. Henry Shorthouse. The Diseases of the Eighteenth Century. By S. G. Tallentyre CORNHILL MAGAZINE 37 Peter's Mother. Chapter VIII. By Mrs. Henry de la Pasture. FOR SIX DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, THE LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage, to any part of the U. S. or Canada. Postage to foreign countries in U. P. U. is 3 cents per copy or $1.56 per annum. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money order, if pos sible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money orders should be made payable to the order of THE LIVING AGE CO. Single copies of THE LIVING AGE, 15 cents. THE PARALYSIS OF THE CONSTITUTION. The Ministry, the Opposition and the nation stand at the present moment all alike in a false position. To insist upon this fact, to examine its cause, and to draw out its significance is the aim of this article. That the Government is in a false position is past a doubt. The Cabinet began its career at the head of a large and compact majority. It inherited advantages from the preceding Unionist Ministry and turned them in several respects to good account. If less was done for the defence of the Union with Ireland than Unionists had a right to expect, still the Union was preserved. The war in South Africa was brought to a victorious issue. The foreign policy of the Government was, take it all in all, excellent, and met with the approval of England. Friendship with the United States was sedulously kept alive and promoted; the goodwill of France was regained; the position of England in Egypt was strengthened; every difference which seemed likely to produce illwill between the English Monarchy and the French Republic was adjusted. To the credit of Ministers must be set down the alliance with Japan. It has circumscribed the area of the war in the Far East; it has gained for England a powerful and it may be a very valuable ally. The suggestion indeed, may with truth be made that neither our statesmen nor our people have as yet awoke to the whole import of the rise of Japan into a great Power. For good or for bad the creation of a State whereof the navy has already achieved triumphs comparable with the most famous victories of English seamanship, and the birth, so to speak, of a new State which is influenced neither by the historical traditions nor by the religious creeds of Europe, is no light matter. It is a revolution, the true meaning of which may not become apparent till more than one generation has passed away. But no one can say that at a new crisis in the world's history our Government has shown either undue hesitation or any obvious want of judgment; and if critics of the Ministry hold that this verdict on the foreign policy of the Cabinet is too favorable, they will, if possessed of common fairness, own that in the conduct of foreign affairs Ministers can claim the support of the country. In truth the leaders of the Opposition, though their silence is sometimes a little ominous, seem all but to admit that the foreign policy of the Government is, and must continue to be, the policy of the nation. No doubt there are few persons who would contend that in the management of domestic affairs Ministers have been nearly as successful as in their dealings with foreign nations. The legislative action and the legislative inaction of the Government, everything which as an executive it has done or has left undone at home, has been the object of severe and often of just criticism. Still, if we omit for the moment all reference to the controversy about so-called Fiscal Reform, it may well be doubted whether the Government, even in domestic matters, has fared worse than most other Ministries. Every Cabinet which remains long in power must of necessity have done many things which in the eyes of opponents or censors it ought not to have done, and have omitted to do many things which it ought to have done. This is what causes the so-called swing of the pendulum, but it may well be doubted whether the accumulating unpopularity |