with absolute power, until the other party contrives to secure a majority in the parliament, when it, in its turn, has its innings, chooses its own chief, who rules despotically until the scale is turned against him, and he is deposed to make room for the chosen chief of the opposition.
The method by which the party in opposition contrives to secure a parliamentary majority for itself is by disparaging the measures of the party in power, and promising greater reforms and better measures than those of their rivals.
The Colymbians have a great craze for always tinkering and altering their constitution, and the chief aim of the party in power is to be constantly increasing their own authority in the state. Thus politics are always in a very lively condition, for while the ruling party endeavour to maintain their prestige by sweeping reforms and radical changes, the party in opposition always make a point of promising still greater reforms and more important changes than those effected by the party in power.
The whole parliament is freshly elected every three years, and it generally happens that every new parliament reverses the condition of the parties and gives the opposition the majority they desire.
Elections are nominally the free choice of the people, but this freedom is nominal only, for the electors are cajoled, intimidated or bribed to such an extent that it is more by chicanery and money that members get into parliament than by the honest choice of the electors.
Thus it happened that the party which promised most and had the largest purse invariably secured the
