ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the benefits which Parliament as a corporate body confers upon the nation must be clearly distinguished from the advantages which result from the triumphs of individual statesmanship. A political assembly is in its essential character a practical manifestation of the will of the people, and its function is to control the phenomenon of government in the interests of the whole nation. The possession of legislative powers in any real and accurate sense by the two most famous political assemblies in history—the Roman Senate and the English Parliament—will be found upon examination to be subject to the gravest doubt. A country profits more by the leadership of talented statesmen than by the misplaced legislative activity of even the most conscientious political assembly. The difference between election and representation corresponds to the difference which has been shown to exist between the active work of statesmen and the restrictive influence of the political assembly.
