But we cannot have ministerial responsibility in its fulness under the Constitution as it stands. The most that we can have is distinct legislative responsibility, with or without any connection of co-operation or of mutual confidence between the executive and Congress. To have so much would be an immense gain. Changes made to this end would leave the federal system still an unwieldy mechanism of counteracting forces, still without unity or flexibility; but we should at least have made the very great advance of fastening upon Congress an even more positive form of accountability than now rests upon the President and the courts. Questions of vast importance and infinite delicacy have constantly to be dealt with by Congress; and there is an evident tendency to widen the range of those questions. The grave social and economic problems now thrusting themselves forward, as the result of the tremendous growth and concentration of our population, and the consequent sharp competition for the means of livelihood, indicate that our system is already aging, and that any clumsiness, looseness, or irresponsibility in governmental action must prove a source of grave and increasing peril. There are already commercial heats and political distempers in our body politic which warn of an early necessity for carefully prescribed physic. Under such circumstances, some measure of legislative reform is clearly indispensable. We cannot afford to put up any longer with such legislation as we may happen upon. We must look and plan ahead. We must have legislation which has been definitely forecast in party programmes and explicitly sanctioned by the public voice. Instead of the present arrangements for compromise, piecemeal legislation, we must have coherent plans from recognized party leaders, and means for holding those leaders to a faithful execution of their plans in clear-cut Acts of Congress. [Illustration] _LIST OF VOLUMES OF ESSAYS ON LITERATURE, ART, MUSIC, ETC., PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, 743–745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK._ [Illustration] HENRY ADAMS. HISTORICAL ESSAYS. (12mo, $2.00.) CONTENTS: Primitive Rights of Women--Captaine John Smith--Harvard College, 1786–1787--Napoleon I. at St. Domingo--The Bank of England Restriction--The Declaration of Paris, 1861--The Legal Tender Act--The New York Gold Conspiracy--The Session, 1869–1870. “Mr. Adams is thorough in research, exact in statement, judicial in tone, broad of view, picturesque and impressive in description, nervous and expressive in style. His characterizations are terse, pointed, clear.”--_New York Tribune._ SIR EDWIN ARNOLD. JAPONICA. Illustrated by Robert Blum. (Large 8vo, $3.00.) “Artistic and handsome. In theme, style, illustrations and manufacture, it will appeal to every refined taste, presenting a most thoughtful and graceful study of the fascinating people among whom the author spent a year.”--_Cincinnati Enquirer._ AUGUSTINE BIRRELL.