The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-01 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1870

The inequality of the distribution of labour be-
tween the two Houses of the Legislature is very
forcibly recalled to mind, and illustrated afresh, by
the significant fact that four out of the six months
set apart for the Parliamentary Session have already
elapsed before the first great measure of the year has
passed through the House of Commons, on its way
to the House of Lords, and that, consequently, the
latter will have to scramble through it in exactly half
the time, if the whole session is not to be wasted, if
in other words the Government Bill in question, the
Irish Land Bill, is, before the prorogation of the
Legislature, to be at length transformed into
an Act of Parliament. It was only on the
penultimate day of May that this Bill was read a
third time and passed through the Lower House
without a division. It was on Tuesday, the 15th of
February, that we were listening to Mr. GLADSTONE'S
great speech in the House of Commons, when, as
Prime Minister, he laid before Parliament, this care-
fully prepared scheme of the Government. It
was Monday, the 30th of May, before the Bill had
been formally passed through all its various stages
in the popular branch of the Legislature. The Lords
must consequently bestir themselves. After the
Whitsun holidays Midsummer will be looming up
before us and, whatever haste can reasonably be
made in June and July, must be made by them forth-
with—otherwise, before we are any of us well
aware of it, we shall find ourselves landed in
August, upon the eve of the grouse-shooting,
with the foremost omnibus in the parliamentary line
still stuck in Temple Bar. The rest are to follow in
due sequence, if that first one in the long procession
can but be dragged forward betimes. The Lords wait-
ing all this while, through February, through March,
through April, through May, until June itself has
arrived, before the Irish Land Bill is, for the first
time in its substantive form, submitted to their con-
sideration. They have heard of it, they have read of
it as under discussion in " another place :" but, as a
bill actually in existence, they have, until now, had
no knowledge of it whatever. At, length, howbeit,
for them also, the day of work has arrived. But, as
usual, the work of the Peers has to be hastened on, if
it is to be done at all—their toil as legislators
having to be crammed into the fag-end of the
session, instead of being equally distributed over
the full period of its duration. The difficulty is ob-
viously this, that, as a rule, the bulk of the sessional
labour is commenced iu the Commons. Instead of
which, a fair proportion ought to be accorded to each
House—measure A being introduced in the Com-
mons, measure B in the Lords, measure C in
the Commons, measure D in the Lords—A and
C, B and D crossing each other midway. Nothing
could have been more natural, for example, than for the
Government Education Bill to have been introduced
in the Upper House, the House in which is seated
the official chief, who is at the head of the Educa-
tional Board, the high and mighty patrician, who-
ever he may chance to be, who holds rank at the
moment among her MAJESTY'S Ministers as Lord
President of the Council. It would have happened
unfortunately, of course, that upon carrying out
our suggestion in the present instance, the Education
Bill would have been introduced to Parliament, first
of all, by Lord DE GREY and RIPON, a very good
Grand Master of the Freemasons possibly, but a very
bad, or, at any rate, a very indifferent, and a very
insignificant Orator, and Statesman, and Adminis-
trator—instead of by the Minister of Education,
par excellence, the Right Hon. W. E. FORSTER, the
Vice-President. That, however, is purely a coinci-
dence. What England aims at always—if repeatedly,
as in this instance, the mark is missed—is the setting
of the Right Man in the Right Place, is the not
allowing the best man to come off second best in the
distribution of appointments. It would have been
unfortunate, doubtless, to have had the Government
measure in regard to National Education first of all
explained to the Legislature, and through the Legis-
lature to the country, by the Earl DE GREY and RIPON
instead of by Mr. FORSTER. But, for all that,
Mr. FORSTER would, in due course, have had
his turn, the time of the session, particularly of the
Lords, would not have been wasted, and the Bill, be-
fore this, would have been very much advanced.
Earnestly, therefore, is it to be hoped that the system
hitherto in vogue—according to which the vast
majority, instead of merely a fair proportion of
the Government measures are introduced, first
of all, as a rule, through the House of
Commons may at length in the fullness of time be
judiciously modified. A more rational distribution
of labour might, there is no doubt whatever about it,
be readily enough arranged, spreading the Parlia-
mentary toil ever the six months of the session, and
sharing it, in more reasonable proportions, between
the two Houses of the Legislature.

THE scene in the House of Commons about half-
past six o'clock on Monday evening is not likely to
be forgotten by those who witnessed it. Mr. HARDY,
who has during the present session been leading the
Conservative party, had made a few mild observa-
tions upon the Irish Land Bill, intimating that,
though he did not like the measure, he should not
divide against it, but should leave the Upper
House to make it acceptable (a wise deci-
sion, considering that in the Lower House Mr.
HARDY and his friends are always in a minority
of over 100) ; Mr. GLADSTONE had made his last
set oration upon this bill, and had, with great tact,
bestowed praise all round for the care and attention
which members of all parties had given to it ; Cap•
tain ARCHDALL had denounced the bill from the Tory
Irish landlords' point of view, when Sir JOHN GRAY
got up to condemn the bill as little better than a
sham ; as, indeed, worse than that, since it would com-
pletely extirpate the class of small tenant farmers.
The stormy and noisy impatience with which this
prophet of evil was listened to, or rather not listened
to, would have made a less self-confident man sit
down. But the member for Kilkenny does not want
assurance. Had he wanted it he would never have
opposed the bill at all. When it was introduced he
praised it, and it was not until he had conferred with
his extreme friends in Ireland that he suddenly
altered his tone, and could find nothing but mischief
in the measure which he had at first thought
so worthy of commendation. For twenty-
five minutes he kept hungry members
from their dinner, and the roar that ascends from the
Zoological Gardens just before feeding-time was but
as the cooing of a dove compared with the noise I