in Paris and London, there seems to be a tendency for the municipal bodies to supplement, and even to supersede the functions of 281 the national legislatures. The Bill prepared by the present Government (clearly with the intention of pleasing the country electors) for the formation of District and Parish Councils, though their powers will be but small, is nevertheless an important step, if only as providing a democratic machinery, which can be hereafter used for socialistic purposes.
It should here be stated that there are current amongst Socialists two views on the method of dealing with the modern bureaucratic state, not involving any ultimate opposition to each other, but the result of looking on the matter from different points of view. To some the national-political systems seem so difficult of attack, and to serve so clearly the end of keeping some kind of society together during the transition period, that they look forward to the new society developing itself under the political shell of the old bureaucratic states, which could to a certain extent be used by the revolutionists, rather than to any disruption of them prior to the realisation of the new social system.