The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-04-14
Responsible Government.

Iu Lue CuIIoHt uuluDeI Vi lue IHteTHUCtONUL
Reuieu is to be found paper by Professor
Van Buren, Denslow entitled Irresponsible
Government" 1t advances ideas upon our
theory Of administration and its practical
working which deserve painstaking considera-
tion by all thoughtful men. Most of us have
been brought up in the belief that the instru-
ment wrought by the patient wisdom of the
fathers of the republic furnishes model of
form for free government. upon which no ex-
perience can improve. But the perfect adapti-
bilty of our constitution to the wants of our
people is still in grave question. There is Sc
rioas doubt if our system OF holding public
officers to account by short, fixed terms of Of.
flee, is the best that can be devised, or as
peal to the people and vacation of Office if the
decision be adverse.
Professor Denslow thinks there is no doubt.
He heartily and unreservedly fayors that sys-
TEN, called by him responsible government"
wherein the administration is responsible to
the legislature and to the people for every
thing that is done, and wherein, to make this
responsibility just, the legislature and peo-
pie have the means of removing and chang
ing the administration at any moment to con-
ally expressed. II implies some one officer
sufficiently permanent to act, in great part
ninisterially, as an appointer of cabinets, a
discover of legislatures, and caller OF popu-
lar elections, to the end that the executive
and legislative branches of the government
may. in case of conflict between them, appeal
to the voting constituency or people to say
which is right; and having so appealed, and
the people having voted thereon, their vote
shall SO control the complexion of the legisla-
ture and OF the cabinet that all departments
of the government shall bow to the latest ex-
preston of the popular will. 1t is a system
under which legislatures and ministries are
dissoiuble at any moment instead of being
elected or appointed for fixed terms of office ::
under which the people are appealed to only
to decide some living issue on which the leg
!slature has not yet acted; and under which
political narties divide and vote, not with ref.
erence to the utility of something already
irreparaby done, but to the wisdom of some
thing proposed to be done, and on the pro.
priety Of doing which the administration in
power thinks one way and the majority of
the legislature thinks the other.
This system has long in effect obtained in
England, and the responsibility of the minis
ters to the House of Commons has been ex-
ercised for many years, at first rudely through
impeachments and executions, but after
ward politely through designations. The
doctrine that the crown is subordinate
to the commons has obtained without
question since the accession of William
Orange, and its logical sequence, that the
throne is bound to obey the house. either as
it now is, when question arises, or as it
shall be after one election has tested the pop
ular will on that question, is now universally
admitted.
Under this system the right of appealing to
the people on living issues exists every mo-
ment. In America an election is quite as
likely to throw the executive out of haruonv
with the legislature as not, but under the
system of responsible government every elec-
tion restores harmony between the executive
and the legislature. In England elections
are brought on only when the decision of the
people is needed on some great issue or
policy, and no such issue can be decided
without an appeal to the people. In this
country we hold elections solely because we
have reached the period for holding them, no
matter if there is no issue to be voted upon,
Indeed the issue pending when legislators
are elected is seldom that on which they are
to act, but generally that on which they have
already acted. Thus, as Professor Dens-
low mentions in illustration, after Presi-
dent Jackson had crushed the National
Bank, the people voted on its propriety. After
| Polk had made war on Mexico, the people
| voted on whether he ought to have done so.
| And after the compromises of1S50 concerning
| slavery the people kept on voting as to
| whether those compromises were right. OF
| not, until the breach widened into war. Had
we been under responsible government
| the people would have voted on the compro.
| mise before it was adopted. In England the
ministry, defeated on measure, either
resigns or appeals to the people. If the latter
course is taken, and the ministry sustained by
the voters, the measure becomes law. If on
the other hand the legislature is sustained
Che administration passes into the hands =,
those vino represent the popular will. The new
ministry introduces new measures, for which
it is solely responsible, and unless the new
| opposition has something better to offer the
measures pass. When the House will not
pass the administration measures, the meaning
is that new administration is wanted. The
sense of the nation is then taken. By this
means both government and opposition are
forced to entertain and advance definite
policy.
Now while it may be that the British sys'
TEN has in this abrupt holding to responsible.
ity.advantages over our own,it is by no means
certain that it can be carried without the
establishment of a permanent executive, or
that system which works well in a constitu.
tional monarchy would work equally well