the end of commercial gain. With the transition to constitutional rule and methods, the discretion and autonomy in the case has passed from the hands of the prince into those of the businesa men, and the interests of the business men have superseded those of the crown.
1 Representative government means, chiefly, repre[sentation of business interests. The government commonly works in the interest of the business men with a fairly consistent singleness of purpose. And in its solicitude for the business men's interests it is borne out by current pubhc sentiment, for there is a naive, unquestioning persuasion abroad among the body of the people to the effect that, in some loccult way, the material interests of the populace [coincide with the pecuniary interests of those buai■ pess men who live within the scope of the same set ,of governmental contrivances. This persuasion is an article of popular metaphysics, in that it rests on an uncritically assumed solidarity of interests, rather than on an insight into the relation of busi-
1 Thla ii not true in ne&rly tba game degree tor the mercaaUle pollelBi of England, even iu etirly modero Umea. In English policy, under the Inchoate constitutional Bystem of the mercantilist era, the ulterior (avowed) end Ib always the (busineas) adyantaga of the " commonwealth." The prince comes in r«tber as second than as Bm claimant on tba •oUcltnde of the mercantilist stateaaan.
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ness enterprise to the material welfare of those classes who are not primarily business men. This persuasion is particularly secure among the more conservative portion of the community, the business men, superior and subordinate, together with the professional classes, as contrasted with those vulgar portions of the community who are tainted with socialistic or anarchistic notions. But since the conservative element