The elections, thus made, have proved
eminently successful, and are conspicuously the best of all the
elections in the United States, the Senate invariably consisting of
the most distinguished men among those who have made themselves
sufficiently known in public life.
After such an example, it cannot be said that indirect popular
election is never advantageous. Under certain conditions it is the
very best system that can be adopted. But those conditions are
hardly to be obtained in practice, except in a federal government like
that of the United States, where the election can be entrusted to
local bodies whose other functions extend to the most important
concerns of the nation. The only bodies in any analogous position
which exist, or are likely to exist, in this country are the
municipalities, or any other boards which have been or may be
created for similar local purposes. Few persons, however, would
think it any improvement in our parliamentary constitution if the
members for the City of London were chosen by the Aldermen and
Common Council, and those for the borough of Marylebone avowedly, as
they already are virtually, by the vestries of the component parishes.
Even if those bodies, considered merely as local boards, were far less
objectionable than they are, the qualities that would fit them for the
limited and peculiar duties of municipal or parochial aedileship are
no guarantee of any special fitness to judge of the comparative
qualifications of candidates for a seat in Parliament.
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