The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-17 00:00:00

THE PROGRESS OF LEGISLATION.

The Parliamentary session has now arrived
at a stage when the legislative history of the
year passes from the region of conjecture into
that of certainty. Its character is by this time
fixed for good or evil beyond the possibility of
serious modification, for when the days of June
have ebbed awaay, there are but six weeks left.
Noble lords and honourable gentlemen find it
impossible seriously, to consider the idea of re-
maining in London after the twelfth of August.
Its anticipations after long and arduous days at
Westminster, form " their thought by day, their
dream by night." The fresh moorland breezes
and the pure mountain air are such a pleasant
contrast to the heavy stifling atmosphere which
hangs over the metropolis, thit they are quite
willing to work double tides in order to get
away. The Prime Minister, of whatever shade
of political opinion, generally contrives to bring
the session to an end about the 10th of August,
so that the members may be ready with dog
and gun upon the moors on the morning of the
twelfth. Bills which are not indispensable
during the current session then receive very
unceremonious treatment. The orders of the
day for their consideration are discharged one
after another without compunction ; and this is
what is called the massacre of the innocents.
These unoffending Bills have done no harm, yet
they are ruthlessly slaughtered, and lie in a
mass of helph.ss confusion upon the floor of the
House. There are, of course certain measures
which must be passed, even if her Majestv'e
faithful Commons sit into September. Chief of
these is the Appropriation Act, allotting to the
separate services the money which has been
voted by Parliament—so much each to the
military, the nava), snd the civil departments.
The introduction of this measure is always
hailed with cheers, for then the representatives
of the people know that the period of their
release has nearly arrived, that the time of their
departure is at hand. But let any bill of coin-
parstively small importance or interest stop the
way between the Legislature and their holidays,
and no mercy is extended to them. The invo-
cation is that of Cromwell to the Long Parlia-
ment, "Get you gone 1"
The fitful way in which popular feeling ebbs
and flows with respect to great and sweeping
organic changes has often been the subject ol
observation. It is impossible to account for
these periodical rises and falls in public feeling.
A question which has remained dormant for
years, and has received but a fitful and fleeting
degree of attention, suddenly comes to the front
for settlement. You can play at it battledore
and shuttlecock fashion no longer. It may be
a political, an ecclesiastical, or a social matter,
but there it is at last, and must be faced. For
instance the wave of popular emotion which
passed over the land between 1830 and 1832
was perfectly irresistible. Reform had been
talked about for many years ; little schemes had
been laid before Parliament only to be rejected
or withdrawn,when, suddenly, a revolution took
place in Paris, Charles X. was driven from his
throne, and Louis Phillip° was seated instead
as the embodiment of the sovereignty of the
People. He was the Citizen King. That re-
volution had such an extraordinary influence in
this country that Parliamentary Reform, shelved
for a generation, became the absorbing topic of
the day. No other work could be done until it
had been removed out of the way. One of the
accidents of political life in another nation had
brought this to the surface, and the way in
which it was dealt with is known to every
reader of history. That was a political questioii.
How a social one was treated was apparent in
1846, when after a long agitation the import
duty on corn was removed. What was then
known as a sliding scale had been often enough
proposed only to be negatived, and no single
party in the State would now be found to say
that the sweeping measure then adopted was an
irupolittc one. It has counteracted the effects
of bad harvt its, for now, when the yield of
grain is deficient in our own islands, we can
draw upon the granaries of the world, and corn
in any quantity can be landed here without a
shilling of Customs duty. Previously to the
time of which we speak. a bad harvest at home
meant bread at famine price, now it means only
the sending away of a certain quantity of
bullion, and getting in exchange as much corn
as we want. IR our own times we have seen
questions suddenly rise for settlement, after
having been long in abeyance, and have wit-
nessed the way in which they have had to be
handled. The tide flowed in that direction, and
it had to be taken advantage of. At the present
time a repose which closely resembles stagnation
is the order of the day in domestic matters, and
the interest of all persons who pay any atten-
tion to political events is now almost exclusively
centered upon foreign affairs. The very atti-
tude of the people towards domestic politics is
perhaps due in part to a saund instinct wsruing
i
View that a crisis s at hand in the affairs of
Europe. It is impossible to be absorbed at
home and concentrate the national attention
abroad at the same time. The prosecution of
the W:11* with Russia in 1854 rendered necessary
the withdrawal of one of Lord Russell's
.Reform
Bills, because the people could not go into the