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During forty years faith in parliamentary government has suffered an extraordinary decline or , as some would say , a temporary eclipse.in This change is visible in every civilised country . In this case lawyers would gladly surrender a domain to which they can establish no valid title . The wide gift of the elective franchise will be a great calamity to the whole nation , and to those who gain it as great a calamity as to any . If one state of a federation greatly exceed in its numbers and in its resources the power of each of the other states , and still more if such " dominant partner , " to use a current expression , greatly exceed the whole of the other Confederated States in population and in wealth , the confederacy will be threatened with two dangers . This fact has made much impression on the political opinion both of England and of the United States . Now all the ideas which are most dear to constitutional reformers or innovators in 1914 lead to schemes of more or less merit for giving full expression in the matter of legislation to public opinion , i.e. for ensuring that any law passed by Parliament shall be popular , or at lowest not unpopular . And to make this plainer , if need be , it is added , " If a man grants to one estovers to repair his house , it is appurtenant to his house . It is fair to all the friends who have aided me that I should state explicitly that for any opinions expressed in this Introduction no one is responsible except myself . I venture to assure all my readers that this forgetfulness of England and by England I here mean the country known , and famous , as England before the legal creation either of Great Britain or of the United Kingdom is a fashion opposed both to common sense and to common justice , and , like all opposition to the nature of things , will ultimately come to nothing . This is proved by the constant experience of Switzerland and of each of the States which make up the American Commonwealth . It is pre-eminently desirable that every opinion bona fide existing among the electors should be represented in the House of Commons in as nearly as possible the same proportion in which it exists among the electors , or , to use popular language , among the nation . Thus to say that the King appoints the Ministry is untrue ; it is also , of course , untrue to say that he creates courts of justice ; but these two untrue statements each bear a very different relation to actual facts . In each instance , and in many other cases which will occur to any intelligent reader , English democrats entertain a considerable difficulty in opposing claims with which they might possibly on grounds of expediency or of common sense have no particular sympathy . The habit has now grown up that conferences should be held from time to time in England , at which shall be present the Premier of England and the Premier of each Dominion , for consultation and discussion on all matters concerning the interest and the policy of the Empire , and that such conferences should be from time to time held may now , it is submitted , be considered a moral right of each Dominion . This veto , in the first place , has , at any rate since 1832 , been as a rule used by the Lords as a merely suspensive veto . Any one will see that this is so who considers how patent would have been the folly of the attempt to establish a confederacy which should have left Italy a state of the Austrian Empire . Hence the obvious conclusion that as every Englishwoman pays taxes under the law of the United Kingdom , every Englishwoman is at any rate prima facie entitled to a vote . No one , in the second place , can , I think , with reason dispute that , among the numerous plans for proportional representation thrust upon the attention of the public , some one , and probably several , would tend to make the House of Commons a more complete mirror of what is called the mind of the nation than the House is at present ; and this concession , it may with advantage be noted , does not involve the belief that under any system of popular government whatever , a representative body can be created which at every moment will absolutely and with complete accuracy reflect the opinions held by various classes of the people of England . countries which make up the British Empire , if he reflects that they are occupied by different races whose customs and whose civilisation are the product of absolutely different histories , that the different countries of the Empire are in no case contiguous , and in many instances are separated from England and from each other by seas extending over thousands of miles , he will rather wonder at the boldness of the dreams entertained by the votaries of federal Imperialism , than believe that the hopes of federalising the Empire are likely to meet with fulfilment . It is more than possible that the referendum might , if introduced into England , increase the authority of voters not deeply pledged to the dogmas of any party . Thus Speakers elected by a Liberal majority have continued to occupy their office though the House of Commons be elected in which a Conservative majority predominates , whilst , on the other hand , a Speaker elected by a Conservative House of Commons has held the Speakership with public approval when the House of Commons exhibits a Liberal majority and is guided by a Cabinet of Liberals . But , when every admission which the most ardent of Imperialists can ask for , is made of the benefits conferred in every quarter of the world upon the inhabitants of different countries , by the existence of England 's Imperial power , it is quite possible for a calm observer to doubt whether the so-called federalisation of the British Empire is an object which ought to be aimed at by the statesmen either of England or of the Dominions . The idea , he will ultimately say , that the possession of a vote is a personal right is a delusion .