32 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

of the Judicature, however, is the Lord Chancellor, who also,
as a member of the Cabinet, belongs to the Executive, and as a
member of the House of Lords, to the Legislature. So the
Separation of powers is not complete; but there is sufficient of
it to have considerable effect on the character of the Constitution.
The U.S.A. again provides a contrast here. The President
and his Ministers cannot be members of Congress. For this
reason, Walter Bagehot, in his book on the English Constitution,
speaks of "Presidential Government" when he means complete
separation of Legislature and Executive, and "Cabinet Govern-
ment" when he means the fusion of the two on the English
model. He remarks that since Cabinet Government offers to the
successful politician both kinds of power, it will attract an abler
type of man into politics than will Presidential Government.
The reader must look .at representative British and American
politicians and form his own opinion. It should be remembered
that in this country, as contrasted with the U.S.A., politics
was regarded as a distinguished career before the opportunity
of making great wealth in industry was as great as it ia to-day.
Industry and commerce do not therefore absorb so large a
proportion of able people. The U.S. system works conveniently
enough when the President and the majority in Congress are of
the same Party; when they differ, the danger of paralysis of
Government appears. The widespread belief, that the U.S.A.,
after fostering the idea of the League of Nations in 1919, backed
out of it, arises from a failure to realise that President Wilson,
of the Democratic Party, had not all the powers of Government;
he could not do all he wished when the majority in Congress
was Republican.1

Our other defence of liberty is what might be called the
"negative principle". For the most part, the law does not say
what citizens may do, but what they may not do. It may be
assumed that whatever has not been declared illegal, either in

1 Republicans and Democrats arc the chief parties in the U,SJV.: the
words have not the same meaning as in ordinary speech in this country.