A close study of French feeling (and of English feeling as it is gradually assimilating itself to French) has led me to the following conclusion: _Government by majority is considered to be a state of liberty only so long as opposing forces are so nearly balanced that the minority of to-day may hope to become the majority of to-morrow._ A minority lives on hope, when it has no hope it becomes bitter and considers itself the victim of tyranny. To understand English liberty as it flourished in the last generation, we must remember that it meant for the “classes” the kind of liberty a gentleman and his wife enjoy in their own house. They may have disputes between themselves, sometimes one has the upper hand and sometimes the other, but whichever rules for the day there is no insubordination amongst the domestics, and, if there were, the two would unite to repress it. [Sidenote: Liberty to govern Others.] [Sidenote: Liberty according to Leo XIII.] In a word, by “liberty” people really understand liberty to govern others. The most conspicuous example of this interpretation is given by Leo XIII., who says that he can enjoy no sense of freedom in Rome until he is permitted to govern all the other inhabitants of the city. [Sidenote: Cameral Government. The most Modern Form of Absolutism.] [Sidenote: French Jealousy of born Rulers.] [Sidenote: Opposition of the French Chamber to Individualities.] Whether it can be called “liberty” or not, the kind of government which has succeeded in establishing itself in England and France is exactly the same in both countries. It is cameral government, the rule of a single chamber, the most modern form of absolutism, especially when the chamber delegates all its power to one man. The French Chamber has been so clearly aware of the power such a man would wield that it has shown an extreme jealousy of personal government ever since MacMahon’s unsuccessful experiment. It would not permit even Gambetta to become a potentate. It perceived the fine governing faculties of Jules Ferry and put him aside. Nobody with a despotic temper has a chance of remaining prime minister. The meddling disposition of Wilson was supposed to be creating an occult personal power at the Elysée, so he was expelled from that palace, even though his expulsion involved that of a good president. The same jealousy of personal power removed General Boulanger from the War Office. The longer cameral government lasts in France, the more evident it becomes that the Chamber means to have its way in everything and to suppress all inconvenient individualities. [Sidenote: Numbers _versus_ Genius in the House of Commons.]