se ideas are not of mere academic interest; they have dominated the
trend of Victorian politics for many years. The time has now arrived for
the people to consider whether it is better to keep a Parliament of weak
delegates to express the public opinion which is formed by the press
than to elect a Parliament of "leaders of the people," highly-trained
legists, economists, and sociologists, to form and direct the public
opinion which is expressed by the newspapers. Why should the principle
of leadership, as exemplified in Mr. Syme's own career, be given full
scope in the press, and entirely repressed in Parliament? As to the kind
of influence we mean, no better description could be given than that of
the well-known Labour leader, Mr. H.H. Champion. In an open letter to
Mr. David Syme in the _Champion_ of 22nd June, 1895, he wrote:--

Yet, if you rose to-morrow morning with the resolve to dismiss the
ministry or to reverse the policy of the country, to stop
retrenchment or to recommence borrowing, that resolve would
infallibly translate itself into fact in a few weeks.

In no country that I know of has any organ in the press so much
influence as your paper. It is practically the sole source of
information for the majority of the people. It has no competitors.
It can make any person or policy popular or unpopular. It can fail
to report any man or thing, and for four-fifths of the citizens it
is as though that man or thing were not. It can misrepresent any
speech or movement, and the printed lie alone will reach the
electors. It could teach the people anything you choose. It has
ruled the country for a couple of decades. It rules the country
to-day.

Professor Jethro Brown shows himself alive to the danger of press
domination in Australia. In "The New Democracy" he writes:--"The
_prestige_ of Parliament is destroyed when its deliberations and
conclusions cease to be the determining factor in legislation. The
transfer of the real responsibility for legislation to a new power
implies the discrediting of the old school for training leaders." And he
quotes with approval the expression of opinion by the Honourable B.R.
Wise in the Federal Convention:--

There may be, as Mr. David Syme suggests, no risk involved in the
change of masters; but for my part I would sooner trust the
destinies of the country to the worst Parliament the people of