The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-02-09 00:00:00

Eqe ,Litoarbribge Obsertrer

sATURDAY. FEBRUARY 9th. 1884.

PARLIAMENT IN SESSION.

The Lords Spiritual and Temporal, the
Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, and the Com-
wissioners for Shires and Burghs in the House
of Commons, have, in accordance with the terms
of the Royal Proclamation, given their attend-
a2oe at Westminster for the despatch of urgent
and important bustness. The movers of the Ad-
dun in Loe.s and Co:Amons, habite lin
tive nuifortu, have discharged t heir duties in
the way which invariably elicits compliments
from the leaders of I:9th partiet-:. F eusiomary
/2.;:iuee hive been given by 31inistera and private
mernb vs of heir intention to introduce some
:.:•ores of end such was the shower of these
ocessiJn that Mr. Disraeli, when in the
1-1 •ii,e of Co declared that he plainly
law from them ":4 terrible July." The
benches of the House of Commons once more
resound to the triumphant. shoat of the Minis-
terialists or the ringing cheer of the Opposition.
And while all this is going on in the Chamber
itself, the michinery for disposing of the private
bill legislation is gradually bsing sat to work in
.heconi:beyond the flights of stair.
eases leNdiug from the central hall, and over-
-I,:oking the broad stream of the Thames and the
crowded ::surrey shore.

Eng!and is 1-t Conservative country, taking
the word in its non-politicd sense, and in no-
tl!'eg is this more plainly perceptible than in
U e fortes surrounding the deliberations of the
kiigh Court of Parliament. Let us take, for in-
stance, the debate on that time-honoured insti-
tn!ion, the Address. Everybody has heard of
the Address; but bow many newspaper readers
really know what it is? The Royal Speech is
first read by the Lord Chancellor to the assem-
bled lawgivers in the HO3f3ti of Lords ; it is
again read by the Speaker to the House of Com-
mons on the return of the representatives of
the people to their own chamber. The Addre es
is a solemn document presented to the Crown
by each House gratefully acknowledging the
condescension of the Sovereign in imparting the
information conveyed in the Royal Message.
The Speech usually contains an assurance that
oar relations with foreign Powers are satis-
factory. The Address replies: "We humbly
thank your Majesty for your Majesty's gracious
assurance that your Majesty's relations with
foreign Powers are satisfactory." And so ou
paragraph by paragraph, the assembled legis-
lators expressing the deepest and humblest
gratitude for the promises of Ministerial
measures and for every scrap of intelligence
which has been imparted. There is no one suffi-
ciently impious to suggest that the debate on
the Addrees should be abolished so it will no
denbt go on as long as Parliament shall last.
At the same time it is fairly open to remark
that it has of late years shown a tendency to
run out to portentous dimensions—nine, ten, and
even eleven nights being thus taken out of the
workin:: pirt of the session in discussion almost
every t•aoc, tinder the sun, and referring to
perilous of the globe ranging from China to
Peru.

rac.ao who watch the machinery of legisls-
tion, and who noted with interest the p•ssing of
the Amended Rnles of Procedure in the autumn
If 1882. see that even now there is ample room
for ref•drrn in the management of the business,
more especially of the House of Commons. The
opportunities for debating a measure on every
stags of iZB passage are still very numerous, and
supply openings for talk which leave no doubt
of the chances of full and free discussion. It
has boon said of the present House of Commons
that it is the most garrulous assembly which
07-fr met at Westminster; but in contemplating
the present L is often the else that the past is
evneolked. Still, the recess has illustrated the
eapacey for talk which the members of the
Heusi, -1 ~..:otunions possess, and which is not
applied to the ordinary business of every-day
There is another matter of pressing im-
portance, and which in some degree explains the
discontent in Ireland at the costliness of local
legislation. The demand for Home Rule has
never ben properly fornitVated ; but a cheaper
and less cumlvous plan of disposing of private
bills in Parliament would go a long way to meet
It, and to remove that which is not I:infrequently
a legitimate cause of complaint.