executive functions of the central government were at that time very limited. 'The Prince,' says Montesquieu, 'in his exercise of executive functions, makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies, keeps the peace, prevents invasions.' It was in fact to the maintenance of the internal peace that, apart from foreign relations and war, the duties of the central government were mainly confined. There was no Local Government Board, no Board of Education, no Board of Agriculture, and the duties of the Board of Trade were almost nominal. Nor, on the other hand, were there county councils, district councils, or parish councils. The municipalities were close, corrupt, irresponsible corporations, existing for the benefit of their members and not of the local public. There were no railways, and no limited companies. Gas and electricity had not been utilized. Parliament did not concern itself with educational or sanitary questions, and factory legislation was a thing of the distant future[1]. Thus almost all the materials for modern Parliamentary legislation were absent.
This then would have been one of the differences that Montesquieu would have noted—the prodigious increase in the extent and variety of legislation. And on investigating the causes of the difference he would have found the main cause to be this—that the world has been since his time absolutely transformed by the operation of physical science. What has physical science done for the world? It has done three things. It has increased the ease and speed of production. It has increased the ease and speed of
- ↑ I have ventured to repeat some expressions used in chapter x of my book on Legislative Methods and Forms.
