The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-02-26 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS.

WHEN the course; of legislaticn ran smoothly,
which it was accustomed to do up to a few years

ago, the mode et Parliamentary procedure, and
the way in
_which the House of Commons_ was

accustomed to do its work, attractad very little

public attention outside the Palace of Ifestniin-

ster. True, business people noted, sometimes
with impatience, the growing tendency to
lengthen out debates, and it did not escape
notice that the work done was out of all propor-
tion to the amount of talk with which it was ac-
companied. At the end of every year there
was a holocaust of measures, usually known as
"the massacre of the innocents," and these had
to be sacrificed solely because, so great had been
the quantity of talk, that no time was left to get
through with legislation which was imperatively
demanded. Still, results of some kind were ac-
complished ; and these were sufficient for the
day. If a Bill was not passed in one session,
probably it would be more fortunate in the next.
But at length the time came when Ministers
and Opposition alike felt that the opportunities
for making speeches, which had existed for
ages, :must be considerably restricted if the
business of the empire was to go on. Hence
the conferring upon the Speaker of those great
and unprecedented powers which have lately
given rise to so much comment.
The British Parliament has under its super-
vision the largest empire in the world committed
to the direct care of a representative assembly.
The widespreading territories of Russia cover a
vast extent of square miles ; but Russia is with-
out Parliamentary institutions. The powers
exercised by the Congress cf the United States
are by no means analogous to those of our two
Legislative Chambers ; for each State exercises
sovereign rights within its own boundaries, has
its own Parliament, and makes ite own laws.
For instance, twenty years ago the great Civil
War arose on the question of slavery, which was
described as a "domestic institution" in the
Southern States, while it had no existence
whatever in the North. That which was legal
in South Carolina was an abomination in Mas-
sachusetts, but the representative of Massachu-
setts in the United States Congress at Wash-
ington had no power to interfere with the pecu-
liar arrangements of South Carolina. But we
manage things differently in this country. We
do not have one law for Yorkshire, and another
for Somerset. The whole kingdom comes
directly under the control of the imperial Par-
liament, which makes equal laws and levies
equal taxation over the entire area. Even if
our legislators had not to go beyond the limits
of the British Isles for their work, they would

find ample occupation.
But the British Isles form but a mere speck
in the enormous territory whose affairs have to
come under the notice of Parliament. Its very
title, "Imperial," tells its own story—it is not the
Parliament of the United Kingdom, but of the
Empire. India, for example, is governed directl)
from London ; its Budget is annually submitted
to the House of Commons, which is thus called
upon to settle the taxation of 200 millions of
people many thousands of miles away. Then
our immense colonial possessions in every
quarter of the globe ore continually furnishing
subjects of debate demanding the most serious
attention. At the present time there is a dis-
pute between Canada and the United States
over the right to certain fisheries which must
come before our own Parliament. There is the
war with the Boers, there are the troubles with
the Basutos ; and there is the apparently in-
evitable conflict with the Ashantees. Fortu-
nately Australia does not give us much anxiety,
and nearer home the Channel Islands, Gibraltar
Malta, and Heligoland are quiet. But at any
aim:cent a complication might arise in either of
these places which would require to be debated
in Parliament. Looking at the experience of
the present sessior, how could time be found for
it 2 Weeks have been already devoted to Ire.

land, and weeks more will be a"Pplied to the same
part of the kingdom ; yet at the end of the Ses-
sion it will be difficult to find an afternoon to
discuse the Indian Budget. The explanation of
the army, navy, and civil service estimates by
the Ministers responsible for the expenditure of
fifty millions of money, momentous issues of
foreign policy, the worries in Africa, important
domestic legislation affecting the welfare of a
great commercial community, social reforms
bearing upoa the health and well-being of the
people—all stand for consideration in Parliament
and seem likely to be in that position for some
time to come. -

_
In the face of the deadlock in business public
opinion has come round to the view that some
restriction in the number of opportunities of
making speeches in the House of Commonh is
absolutely necessary. The forms of that
assembly, which were devised in the days when
locomotion was by waggon and stage coach, and
when the empire was not half its present size,
are not applicable to the exigencies of the pre-
sent day. They have in fact broken down
under the severe strain lately placed upon them,
and the only wonder is that such cumbrous
regulations did not snap asunder some time ago.
But the good sense of the House has at length
recognised the fact that very material changes
are essential if the work of Parliatnent is to be
got through with the care and the efficiency
which people expect from an assembly with the
splendid traditi.ms and the honourable name of
the British House of Commons.