We may cite
the authority of Mr. James Bryce on this point. After pointing out in
"The American Commonwealth" that since the Civil War combinations of
States have always acted through the national parties, he writes:--

This is an important security against disruption. And a similar
security against the risk of civil strife or revolution is to be
found in the fact that the parties are not based on or sensibly
affected by differences either of wealth or of social position.
Their cleavage is not horizontal, according to social strata, but
vertical. This would be less true if it were stated either of the
Northern States separately, or of the Southern States separately:
it is true of the Union taken as a whole. It might cease to be true
if the new Labour party were to grow till it absorbed or superseded
either of the existing parties. The same feature has characterized
English politics as compared with those of most European countries,
and has been a main cause of the stability of the English
government and of the good feeling between different classes in the
community. (Vol. ii., p. 38.)

How is it that the public conscience is not alive to the enormity of
this anti-social crime? Mainly, we think, because the true principles of
representation are not properly understood. It is almost universally
assumed that there is no real distinction between direct and
representative government. Minorities are tacitly allowed to have as
much right to representation as the minority, and the confusion of terms
is passed over. The working classes are told by self-seeking demagogues
that they are in a majority; that the majority is entitled to rule; and
that they have only to organize to come into their heritage. These
sycophants, who, as Aristotle of old pointed out, bear the greatest
resemblance to the court favourite of the tyrant, ask the people to
believe the silly paradox that the united wisdom of the whole people is
greater than that of the wisest part. The truth is that no people is fit
to exercise equal political rights which is not sensible enough to
choose the wisest part to carry on the government, providing only they
have control over their selection, and can hold them responsible. Are
the working classes in Australia going to demonstrate that they are
unfit for the exercise of political rights? Are they going to justify
the prognostications of the opponents