nds of the
people being expressed for them by their representatives, the matters
discussed by the representatives are settled, not by the people, not
even by themselves, but by the very body which it is the business of the
representative assembly to check and control."

These truths are to-day common knowledge. We all know that the power of
government does not reside in practice with the people, but with some
body which remains for most of us undefined. It is the peculiar service
of the authors of _The Party System_ to have defined that body for us
and to have exposed its nature and composition. Bagehot referred to this
body as the Cabinet; in _The Party System_ it is shown that this body is
really composed of the members of the two Front Benches, which form "one
close oligarchical corporation, admission to which is only to be gained
by the consent of those who have already secured places therein." The
greater number, and by far the most important members, of this
corporation enter by right of relationship, and these family ties are
not confined to the separate sides of the House. They unite the
Ministerial with the Opposition Front Bench as closely as they unite
Ministers and ex-Ministers to each other. There is thus formed a
governing group which has attained absolute control over the procedure
of the House of Commons. It can settle how much time shall be given to
the discussion of any subject, and therefore, in effect, determine
whether any particular measure shall have a chance of passing into law.
It can also settle what subjects may be discussed and what may be said
on those subjects. Further, this group has at its disposal large funds
which are secretly subscribed and secretly disbursed, and, by the use of
these funds, as well as by other means, it is able to control elections
and decide to a considerable extent who shall be the representatives of
the people.

Can this system be mended? Is any reform possible within the system
itself? As long ago as 1899, in the first important book he published,
Mr. Belloc wrote these words:

... the _Mandat Imperatif_, the brutal and decisive weapon of the
democrats, the binding by an oath of all delegates, the mechanical
responsibility against which Burke had pleaded at Bristol, which
the American constitution vainly attempted to exclude in its
principal election, and which must in the near future be the method
of our final reforms.

It is a