Thus the very weakness of an administration may possibly become an advantage, since it thus becomes impossible for government to carry any measure entirely opposed to the calm good sense of the people. This, however, admits of one excepted case. If a party to advance its own interests will pander to some strong passion, to some prejudice of ignorance or of bigotry, it may for a time succeed, though it will ultimately lose in character. In the meantime, the people have found out that Party is made use of only for the aggrandizement of a few families; that it has degenerated into a clique, banded together for mercenary purposes, without enthusiasm or genius to compensate for its meanness, and with little of talent to palliate its want of integrity. The reign of party, however, verges towards its end; the supplies on which it feeds are sapped by economical reform. That almost all places under Government are greatly overpaid admits of no denial. The demand for them is notoriously great, and it is equally notorious that nothing but the strongest political interest has any chance in the contest for them. The government of England is nominally a limited monarchy, but practically almost an oligarchy. A large number of its appointments are shared by a few families, into which some daring and unscrupulous intruders occasionally force their way, by opposition which it is easier to quell by place than to answer by argument: or into which less gifted and more cunning supporters sometimes obtain an entrance by a judicious alliance. § It is strongly asserted that government cannot go on without party. That those who maintain this opinion are incapable of so conducting it, must be at once admitted. Without, however, entering into the debateable question of the _limits_ of party, it is sufficient to state another principle, which no honest man will deny, and then to leave to the advocates of party to reconcile it with their doctrine. _It is morally wrong to endeavour to convince any one of the truth of an opinion in which the advocate himself does not believe._ If this principle were practically acted upon, how much of the valuable time of both Houses of Parliament would be saved! In looking over a debate, or still better, a _division_, the private opinions of many of the speakers are often well known by their friends to be quite at variance with the doctrines they advocated in their speeches. The quasi-honesty of those who admit the truth in private, is however venial, when compared with the hypocrisy of those who are equally false on both occasions. Party, then, as it practically exists, is one of the evils of the political state of England.