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ESSAYS ON LIBERTY

termined fault-finder would be able to contest. For they both say that the need for t\VO chambers has become an axiom of political science. I will admit that the doctrine of Paine and Franklin and Samuel Adams, which the Pennsylvanian example and the authority of Turgot made so popular in France, is confuted by the argument o( Laboulaye: "La division du corps législatif est une condition essentielle de la liberté. C'est la seule garantie qui assure la nation contre l'usurpation de ses manda- taires." But it may be urged that a truth which is disputed is not an axiom; and serious men still imagine a state of things in \,'hich an undivided legislature is necessary to resist a too powerful executive, whilst two chambers can be made to curb and neutralise each other. Both Tocqueville and Turgot are said to have wavered on this point. It has been said that Tocqueville never understood the federal constitution. He believed, to his last edition, that the opening words of the first section, "all legislative po\vers herein granted," meant" tous les pouvoirs législatifs déterminés par les représentants." Story thought that he "has borrowed the greater part of his reflections from American works [meaning his own and Lieber's] and little from his own observation." The French minister at Washington described his book as" intéressant mais fort peu exact"; and even the Nation calls it " brilliant, super- ficial, and attractive." Mr. Bryce can never be accused of imperfect knowledge or penetration, of undue dependence upon others, or of writing up to a purpose. His fault is elsewhere. This scholar, distinguished not only as a successful \vriter of history, which is said to be frequent, but as a trained and professed historian, \vhich is rare, altogether declines the jurisdiction of the HISTORICAL REVIE\V. His contumacy is in gross black and white: " I have had to resist another temptation, that of straying off into history." Three stout volumes tell how things are, without telling how they came about. I should have no title to bring them before this tribunal, if it were not for an occasional glimpse at the past; if it were not for a