The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-04 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR—So we have got au autumnal session. A few
weeks ago I remarked to you we had had autumnal
sessions every ten years since the accession of her
Majesty to the Crown in 1837, just 30 years ago,
in which last-named year Parliament assembled on
the 20th of November, being one day later than it
did this year, and on the last-named date Queen
Victoria went in person and opened her first Parlia-
ment. There are a few other autumnal sessions
which I omitted to notice. We had au autumnal
session in 1841, in consequence of the glorious
general election, which had taken place the preced-
ing summer, when, by means of Peel's great ability,
we got rid of that most miserable and wretched of
all Administrations, the Melbourne-John Russell-
Bedchamber Ministry, being all to nothing, the
most despicable and degraded Administration Eng-
land was ever governed, or rather misgoverned, by.
The glorious five years which followed I have too
often alluded to in the course of my correspondence
with you this dying year to make any further allu-
sion to than that the late immortal Sir R. Peel,
when he took office in August, 1841, found England
in a state of all but national bankruptcy, poverty,
misery, and commercial depression of all kinds; and,
moreover, engaged in two distant wars, all brought
about by that bungling and contemptible Mel-
bourne Ministry. This was in August, 1841, when
Peel came into office. We will now step into the
train and get whirled on to July, 1846, when Peel
quitted office, and what do we find ? We might
exclaim with our immortal bard—
" Look on that picture and on this."
England in a state of complete prosperity, every kind
of art and industry flourishing, war apparently ex-
punged from the face of the earth; and last, not least,
the long-bated and detested monopoly of Protection
completely abolished, and Free Trade fixed to be-
come, on and after the Ist day of February, 1819,
the law of the land—the same as our new Reform
Act passed last session is to become the law of the
land on and after Ist of January, 1869, just 20
years later. Thus did Sir R. Peel carry a gigantic
measure of commercial reform in 1846 ; which
Lords Melbourne and John Russell had only six
short years previously declared a man would be
mad, and worse than mad, if he ever thought of at-
tempting. Well, we had an autumnal session in
1841, and again in 1852, in consequence of the
general election the preceding summer, which arose
from the fact of Lord Derby having acceded to
office at the beginning of the aforesaid year. 1854
we had an autumnal session, in consequence of the
Crimean War.

The question forces itself upon my notice—Why
should we not always have autumnal sessions? I
speak for myself, and I have no doubt I do for you,
when I say 1 have no sympathy with that very con-
stitutional school of politicians which thinks that
the House of Commons ought to sit all the year
round, or nearly so, as a check upon the executive.
On the contrary, I believe that public interests arc
on the whole very sufficiently represented by the
pres during the usual and necessary suspension of
legislaive business. England is, to the best of my
knowledge, the only nation in the world whose
civilised inhabitants pass their summer in town and
retire to winter in the provinces. Every other
community adopts a different arrangement. Nature
and common sense tell us to enjoy the pleasures of
outdoor life, of rural residence, or of travel at the
time of the year when the days are long, when the
weather is warm, when trees and flowers are in full
beauty, and when the heated atmosphere of a
populous city becomes at once unwholesome and
disagreeable. On the other hand, frost, snow, in-
terrupted communications, long nights, and short
gloomy days naturally suggest sedentary habits,
the assemblage of friends and acquaintances in a
place where they may meet without trouble, and

the substitution of artificial enjoyments for:: those
which nature has ceased to afford us. Briefly, what
I propose is this, that Parliament should meet
regularly, as nearly as possible, on or about the
19th or 20th of November ; that is to say, about
the same time it did this year, or sooner when term
commences (i. e., the Law Term), say the 2d Novem-
ber, at the cud of the long legal vacation ; that it
should sit from thence to Christmas, and then ad-
journ for the Christmas holidays ; resuming its
sittings not later than the 15th of January, by
which two clear months would have been gained by
the time our Parliamentary session usually com-
mences, namely, Ist February, or thereabouts.
Deduct those two mouths from the other end of
the session, and Parliament might be prorogued by
the first or second week in June, instead of the
first or second week in August.
I have treated this mainly as a matter of social
convenience, but it may be looked at in another
light. Of the jobs and blunders which escape the
vigilance of Parliament, the great bulk are perpe-
trated during the last month or six weeks of the ses-
sion, when heat, weariness, and the attractions of
our brief summer have driven or drawn away all.
except some 70 or 80 members, a clear majority of
whom are often eflicial persons. That this state of
things is au abuse no one can doubt ; it is admitted
on all hands. Ido not say that it can be entirely
remedied, for human energies will flag after a certain
amount of human labour, at whatever season per-
formed, but the attendance would be far larger, the
excuse for absence feebler, and the business there-
fore better done if every M.P. had the certainty of
release by the middle or end of June. As matters
stand very few constituencies will find serious fault
with their representative, especially if he be au old
or middle-aged man, because on the plea of health
he has paired off in July. Moreover the interven-
tion of a month's holiday, as suggested, between the
first and second acts of the session will give alonger
interval of rest than is now enjoyed. The Easter
holidays in the plan proposed would remain undis-
turbed ; at Whitsuntide none would be necessary.
1 may be told " the subject is one which ought to
be left in the hands of Ministers, party leaders, and
those who are intrusted with the management of
Parliamentary business."

To such a criticism I reply that leaders of parties
are precisely the last persons who can venture to
originate an alteration or to lose support by throw-
ing out ideas that may chance to be unpopular
amongst their friends. A question not in any large
sense nationally important, and not advantageous
in a party point of view, must be taken up by
friends and independent members, if meant to be
carried through at all.
I may be met with an objection to disturb the
universal and most laudable practice of family
gatherings at Christmas. But for these ample lei-
sure would be allowed by a Christmas vacation
analogous to the vacations at our great public
schools and the two universities, commencing, say,
on or about the 15th of December, and terminating
on or about the 15th of January in each and every
year.

It may be said that, considering the class from
which Parliament is mainly recruited, the habits of
fashionable life will interfere with such an altera-
tion of times and seasons as I suggest. But what
is called the season is regulated by the session, not
the session by the season. It is to the augmented
assiduity of modern Parliaments, not to any change
in the pleasure-loving part of the public, that we
owe the lengthening out of London festivities into
the later summer or almost autumn. In the good
old days of seventy or eighty years ago when
George 111. was King (all former periods and by-
days are good on the principle of De Mortuis nil
nisi bonunz), and the immortal Billy Pitt was
Premier, Parliament assembled almost exactly at
the same time it did this year, on or about the 20th
of November. But, except on a very special emer-
gency, it never sat later than about the last week
in June, or, at the outside, the first week in July.
And to go further back, into the earlier days of
George 111. and the reigns of George I. and 11., it
oftentimes broke up by the middle of May ;
and long after the Session had begun to commence
at the same time it does now—viz., the beginning
of February—it seldom or never sat later than the
last week in June, or the Ist week in July, except,
as I have already shown, upon special emergencies,
and so matters remained until the very end of the
reign of George IV., for in 1829, the year of the
passing of Catholic Emancipation, the Session came
to an end on the 24th of June; and to prove bow
highly injurious late Sessions were always considered
in 1822, owing to a very heavy Session, Parliament
sat until the 6th August. Lord Londonderry, one
of the Ministers, immediately afterwards terminated
his existence with his own hand ; and it was the
opiuion of many eminent medical men of that
period that his temporary insanity (under the in-
fluence of whOm he was supposed to have de-
stroyed himself) was brought on by hard work,
during what iu those good old days was looked upon
and regarded as a most protracted Session. But
when to the tomb George IV. descended, and with
him the Georges ended, a change came over the
spirit of the dream of our Parliament, and never
since the passing of the old Reform Bill .in 1832
have Parliaments broken up earlier than August.
Nay, oftentimes they have sat until quite the fag
end of the last-named month, and sometimes even
as late as September. In 1831, the first year of the
reign of William IV., Parliament sat until the 20th
of October; but this was a year of emergency, the
same as 1820, 11 years previously, the first year of
the reign of George IV., which was also a year of
emergency, being the year of the redoubtable Queen
Caroline's trial. The same as 1831 was the year of
the discussion of the bill, the whole bill, and nothing
but the bill, so often alluded to by me in the
course of my correspondence with you this year.
In 1820 Parliament sat until the end of Novem-
ber. Now the great boast of all reformers in their
discussions iu favour of reform during the last half
century is that they were not innovators, but re-
storers. The great argument in favour of the old
Reform Bill of 35 years since, as well as the Repeal
of the Corn Laws 20 years ago, and last, not least,
the Reform Bill of 1867, was, that these great mea-
sures merely restored rights and privileges to the
people at large, which time, the greatest of all in-
novators, had deprived them of. The question, in
conclusion, therefore, is, as I set out with asking,
namely, Why should we not always have an
autumnal session ? Shall the apathy which makes
men unwilling to depart from au established custom
of little more than 30 years' duration, and the risk
of some slight interference with the amusements of
some few individuals, stand in the way of a reform
recommended by nature, by common sense, by the
practice of all other countries, by the wish of a large
majority in Parliament itself, and of a far larger
number of persons not in Parliament, whose habits
are indirectly but powerfully influenced by those of
the members of the Legislature ? The matter, no
doubt, is not one of. national importance, but no-
thing is small that concerns the comfort and con.
venience of some thousand persons, and that tends
to improve the conduct of public business.—Trust-
ing you will not consider my long letter on the sub-
ject aforesaid beneath your consideration, I remain,
Sir, your faithful servant,

A LOVER AND OBSERVER OF HISTORICAL
DATES AND FANS.
November 2G, 1867.

The detachments for the Royal Engineers, Ist
Battalion of the Bth (the King's) Regiment, Ist
Battalion of the 14th Regiment, and the 31st
Regiment, left the garrison, for Portsmouth, yes-
terday morning, to embark on board the screw
steamer Orontes, for conveyance to Malta.
ADVERTISEMENT:I—HoIIoway's Pills.— Dangerous Die-
eases.—How many life long maladies spring from neglect..
ing trifling symptoms ! The pimple, readily curable in the
nursery, becomes, through carelessness, the irremediable
torment in after life. With a knowledge of the curative
powers of Holloway's Ointment and Pills those who fail to
use them for extirpating the first seeds of hereditary ail-
ments will have to bear the punishment resulting from
their folly. Holloway's remedies will remove eruptions of
the skin, scorbutic diseases, and scrofula, and heal every
description of ulcer, sore, wound, or abrasion. By the use
of Holloway's excellent, speedy, and safe medicaments,
much pain and immense espouse will be saved, and a great
benefit be zonferred on the present and succeeding genera-
tions.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE—Th-s Day.

ST. ALBANS RACES.
The above races are again postponed until Friday and
Saturday.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS—(ruis EVENING.)

Tho Lonn CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack at
five o'clock.
TILE DRAINAGE AND IMPRO VEMEN T OF LANDS

(IRELAND) BILL.

Ou the moticu of the Duke of BUCKINGHAM this bill was
read a second time.
TOTNES WRITS BILL.

This bill, on the motion of Lord DERBY, was read a
second time, and the standing orders being suspended,
was committed.

THE EAST LONDON MUSEUM SITE BILL.

This bill was read a second time. It is a bill 0 allow
the trustees of the site intended for the East London
Museum to legally transfer it.
The house then adjourned.

NAVAL APPOINTME3TS•

-

The following appointments were raado at the Admiralty
this afternoon :

Captain Cacil W. Buckloy, R.M., V.C., to her Majesty's
ship Pylados, commissioned; Wm. B. Guyer, Engineer
to tho Fisgard, additional, for charge of Engineer of
Dwarf ; Gustav A. C. Benclro, to the Donegal, additiona
for tendere.