of the national' feeling, and this in itself shows-where of course Scottish patriotism cannot be felt-a readiness to drag local nationalism' at the chariot wheels of 'party.'

6

It was Federation to which Mr. Gladstone pointed in 1886.* Wales,' he told us, and even Scotland might be soon asking for a representative body of its own, for the 'desire for Federation was floating in the minds of many.' Mr. Spalding has no consideration for gallant little Wales.' England-including Wales, Scotland, Ireland-each of the three is to have its own House of Commons elected upon the existing household franchise, to choose and control its own executive government, to legislate for its own country, and to tax its own people. It was the idea of Federation,' it may be remembered, which was so hateful to Professor Freeman and many other Home Rulers a few years ago. Nevertheless, let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that their objections, and those of Unionists, have been overcome, and that a federal constitution is actually established. The very raison d'être of each local government and parliament is the sentiment of the national position and dignity attaching to each State.' Circumstances would almost necessarily compel each into aggression on the province of the Federation or of its neighbour States. In the name of nationality these bodies would have been created, and in the spirit of nationality, rather than of a common citizenship, they would naturally pursue their individual policies. At present, though common party lines divide the British people from north to south, Conservatism is much stronger in England than in Scotland. In all probability the majority in the English Parliament would be strongly Conservative, in the Scotch Parliament Liberal, in the Irish Parliament Nationalist. Thus Conservatism and Liberalism, instead of being the political differences of fellow-citizens, would tend to become identified with distinct nationalities.' English and Scotch would oppose each other as such; the differences of party would be intensified, and political difficulties would be greatly increased.

Scotchmen do not forget that an English Parliament and Government, founded on the basis of English nationality, means the exclusion of Scotchmen from the chief internal politics of Great Britain. It is difficult to conceive how a heavier blow could be given to the importance of Scotland,

*The Irish Question,' by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. August, 1886.

than by separating its legislature from that of England. And Scottish national sentiment would indeed be of a strange kind, if it looked to a revival of the glories of the ancient kingdom in the establishment in Edinburgh of a Statutory House of Keys! It is surely clear that an exclusively English Parliament and Government would be too powerful to play the part of a mere State legislature' in a Federation of which Scotland and Ireland were the other members. Neither Scotland nor Ireland wishes to act the part of satellite to the larger kingdom. The history of Scotland between 1603 and 1707 has its lesson. In truth, both with. regard to Scotland and Ireland, our experience of separate Parliaments within the British Islands has not been a happy one, and the British people will be mad indeed if they ev give that system another trial. No! if we are really 'federalise the kingdom (we are not speaking of th Empire) arrangements must be made for dividing England itself into several States, and then it is possible to imagine a Federation of which the different States would stand in fact as well as in theory upon an equal footing. But then, as Mr. Balfour once put it, there is a serious doubt as to whether England will allow herself 'to be cut up into 'lengths' in order to suit the measurements imposed by the alleged necessities of Scotland and Ireland.

Ե

What causes us unmixed astonishment in examining projects such as this of Mr. Spalding's, is the simple faith of the projectors, that after all they are proposing very slight developements' of the constitution, and are merely bringing it into conformity with the circumstances and conditions of our own time. Mr. Spalding's scheme, we have seen, involves the virtual abolition of the House of Lords, but in truth it would prove almost as fatal to the power of the Imperial House of Commons. That House would be forbidden to legislate about purely English affairs, about purely Scotch affairs, about purely Irish affairs. The Executive Government of England would no longer depend upon its support, but upon that of the English State Assembly. The House of Commons would entirely lose touch with the country. It would no longer be the redresser of grievances, the defender of rights, the law-maker upon those matters. which most intimately concern the lives and interests of the electors. But these are the homely functions that have brought the House of Commons into such intimate relations with the British people. The new House of Com

VOL. CLXXXIV. NO. CCCLXXVIII.

B B

mons is to soar above merely local interests, and play the part only of the Senate of an Empire upon which the sun never sets. This may be very magnificent, but it is virtually the end of the House of Commons, such as it has been hitherto known to British citizens.

In the beginning of his work Mr. Spalding supposes, under our existing system, a candidate addressing his constituents on the politics of the day. What can be more absurd, he asks, than to address electors on matters which do not directly concern themselves? What has a Scotch elector to do with the Welsh Church, an English elector with Irish land, an Irishman with an English liquor law? But under the proposed system, how would it be possible for a candidate for the Imperial House of Commons to address a local electorate upon any subject at all? The Scotch candidate must not address the Scotch constituency upon a purely Scotch matter, for these are the concerns of the State Parliament; still less may he show any interest in what concerns England or Ireland, for these are English or Irish affairs.' He must confine himself to foreign, Indian, or colonial matters, the army and the navy, and so forth. He might wax eloquent on coaling stations, on the opium trade, on the Indian cotton duties, on the Venezuelan frontier, on Armenian atrocities; but as to those matters, of which the householders have direct knowledge and strong sentiments, he must say never a word. It would be absurd to pursue this branch of the inquiry any further. It may be that the Empire really requires an imperial senate, and that in time a senate we shall have. But our 670 members of Parliament will hardly become a satisfactory senate merely by taking from them almost the whole of those functions which they have been elected to perform. Two propositions are perfectly clear. First, that to 'federalise' on the basis of the three nations, involves an assembly to deal with the general and imperial interests of the Federation. Secondly, that this assembly or senate, as its functions will be very unlike those of the House of Commons, must be constituted in a perfectly different manner, with a view to the work which it will have to do.

No doubt as time progresses our Parliamentary institutions will undergo great modifications. In all probability devolution to committees of the House of Commons will be much more largely practised than at present. It may be hoped, also, that local administration will be extended, and

a check given to excessive centralisation of authority in London. The extension of local government under a single united Parliament differs in kind, not merely in degree, from proposals to build up on grounds of different nationalities within the kingdom a system of federated states. Attacks upon the unity of Parliament and the authority of the supreme government, under Parliament, in every part of the United Kingdom will inevitably fail. They are opposed to the conditions of the age in which we live. A policy so essentially retrograde, though it may appeal to the fancies of a few theorists, and may even be trifled with for an interval by a few politicians, will never receive the support of a practical people.

ART. V.-1. La Planète Mars et ses Conditions d'Habitabilité. Par CAMILLE FLAMMARION. Paris: 1892.

2. Mars. By PERCIVAL LOWELL. London and Bombay:

1896.

3. The Planet Mars. By GIOVANNI SCHIAPARELLI. Translated by W. H. PICKERING. 'Astronomy and Astro'Physics,' vol. xiii. Northfield, U.S.A.: 1894.

A LADY of the inanely inquisitive kind having met an eminent astronomer, implored permission to ask him one question. Certainly, madam,' he replied, if it isn't ' about Mars.' It was about Mars. That was the time of the great Mars boom, when public imbecility and journalistic enterprise combined to flood the papers and society with 'news from Mars,' and queries concerning Mars, most exasperating to grave thinkers and hard workers in science. The occasion of the excitement was this.

On August 4, 1892, Mars stood right opposite to the sun, at a distance from the earth of less than 35,000,000 miles. This was, for all practical purposes, his nearest,' and oppositions so favourable recur only at intervals of fifteen years. It is true that the earth, in its more rapid circling, comes up with Mars once in 780 days, and passes duly between him and the sun. And if both orbits were circular, all these oppositions would be equally propitious to astronomical inquiry. But that of Mars, in particular, is so considerably eccentric that his opposition-distance varies from 35 to 61 million miles. In the first case his visible disc has the apparent size of a half-sovereign held up, say, at Charing Cross, and viewed from Hyde Park Corner; in the second its area is reduced to one-third this magnitude, and being also less brilliantly illuminated--since the planet is then at its greatest distance from the sun-Mars shines at aphelion-oppositions as a star shorn of three-fourths of the formidable glare with which it rises to midnight culmination when near perihelion.

The opposition of 1892 was awaited with particular interest as an occasion for testing the powers of modern telescopes, and especially of the giant instrument erected on the summit of Mount Hamilton. If, in 1877, Schiaparelli, using an insignificant 9-inch refractor, had gained some preliminary insight into the extraordinary character of Martian topography, and Asaph Hall had detected, through the dull air of Washington, the diminutive satellites of