The Aim of Politics.

What is the aim of all politics? Do you think the aim of politics is solely to get a road here, a bridge there, and a railway in another place? If any constituency or colony has only that political ideal before it, it is not fulfilling it duties as a constituency of true citizens. You have in this town a Free Library, free schools, and other institutions. What is the aim of all these? It is to strive to have a more perfect man than we have yet had, in order that we may have a more perfect State than we have yet had. And if such be our ideals and aim in life, to have a more perfect man and more perfect State, you will find that the constituency which has this ideal before it, and has this aim before it, wilt not only be conferring a favour upon itself, but a favour upon those who are to come after us, which will in after years he inestimable to them. Let me draw your attention to some ideals we must keep before us if we wish to have a perfect State—ideals which, though they may be termed theoretical and idealistic, are just as practical as technical education for our mechanics, just as practical as anything in politics can be. (Cheers). We may start with two things. We have got what is termed the [unclear: individul], and we have got the State. It has its organisation, its functions, its limitations, its rights, and its duties. Let me approach one ideal we must keep in mind as a State. A State must exist. It has to look after its own existence, and also to look after, as part, of its duties, the maintenance of individual liberty, for I don't believe in Socialism. I believe if the race is to be saved and elevated, it will have to be by individual salvation. Here comes in perhaps the most difficult question in the whole range of social science—tho rights and duties of the State as compared with the rights and duties of the individual. I have not time to-night to even sketch to you the views of some of our great philosophers on this question. Some of you have no doubt seen recent articles of Herbert Spencer and others dealing with this question. But I come to one question, a practical question to us, and one, in fact, I intend mainly to deal with—