social rank; envied the rich, and desired to subvert the political and ecclesiastical institutions of the realm.

Mill asserted, as the basis of his political system, that the object of government should be to secure the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

The greatest number, that is the numerical majority of any political community, will always consist of the poorest class, the manual labourers. The whole object of government, according to James Mill, should be to secure the greatest happiness of this class.

Happiness, however, is a complex idea. What is to be the standard by which we are to measure happiness? Is the poorest class to be the judge of what will constitute their greatest happiness? Is the idea of happiness limited to earthly existence, or does it include the idea of a future life? These are questions which might perplex ordinary readers.

James Mill, however, explicity declared that the greatest happiness of the greatest number was to be attained by "insuring to every man the greatest possible quantity of the produce of his labour." The greatest number in every community must be the working class, and if every individual of that class could obtain the greatest possible quantity of the produce of his labour, the problem, in Mill's opinion, would be solved.

Having at the outset stated this as the object to be pursued, Mill founded his scheme of government upon what he believed to be the principles of human nature. Selfishness is, Mill asserted, the prevailing motive of human conduct, and the only mode of neutralizing the selfishness of a portion of the community is to allow the whole community to govern itself. This perfect form of government could, he contended, be obtained by a system of representation, the grand discovery of modern times. Universal suffrage was thus

proclaimed to be the complete and final solution of the political problem.

According to this theory, all history might be discarded as useless for the purpose of political instruction. The experience derived from the study of antecedent governments was superseded by a scheme founded on the invariable principles of human nature. There could be no further question as to the distribution of political power. The mixed Constitution of this realm, and the balance of the Three Estates, were contemptuously dismissed as chimerical and absurd.

Representation, by means of universal suffrage, was propounded as the panacea for all the evils which arise from misgovernment. James Mill did not, however, pursue his theory to its logical result; for if the evils resulting from personal selfishness can only be obviated by universal suffrage; why were the women, that is half the community, to be excluded? Mill inconsistently excluded women from his scheme.

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At the time when Mill published this treatise there was a general desire for some expansion and improvement of our representative system. The large portion of active and intelligent men of business, which in this country constitutes, what is called, the middle class, although eager for Parliamentary reform, were by no means prepared for the extensive change advocated by James Mill. In order to conciliate this influential class, Mill adopted the following argument:

"The middle class," he said, "are the most wise and the most virtuous class in every community, and the opinions of the people who are below the middle rank are formed, and their minds directed, by that intelligent and virtuous class. It is," he added, "altogether futile to assert that this or any other portion of the people may at this or at any other time depart from the wisdom of the middle class; it is enough that the great majority of the people never cease to be guided by that class,

and we may with confidence challenge the adversaries of the people to produce a single instance to the contrary in the history of the world."

Fifty years in the world's history have dispelled many illusions, and if belief in the pre-eminent virtues of the middle class has been somewhat shaken, all confidence in Mill's assertion, "that the people who are below the middle rank will be invariably guided by the class above them," has been destroyed by the evidence of facts. The basis of Mill's reasoning has failed, and the theory founded upon it is worthless.

The first postulate assumed by Mill is equally untenable, namely, that "the object of all government should be to insure to every man the greatest possible quantity of the produce of his labour." The numerical majority of every community are chiefly occupied in securing daily sustenance and animal enjoyments; if the attainment of these