The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-16 00:00:00

THE ENSUING SESSION.
Before the strife of the ensuing session has actually
commenced we are tempted to offer a fors, sugges-
tions upon the method of transacting business in the
two sHouses, the adoption of which might exercise a
favourable influence upon the character as well as the
amount of business actually performed, when we
come to review the history of the session some six
months hence. We do not now make the slightest
pretension to having discovered any patent system of
law-making, by which six months can be made to do
the work of a whole year. The recommendations we
have to offer are but two in number, and we have
never lost an opportunity for a long while past of
pressing them very earnestly upon public attention,
whenever opportunity offered. It must be evident
at the most cursory glance to all who take an in-
terestin public matters, and in the proceedings
of the Houses, that there is en enormous
dispro-
portion
between the amount of business per-
formed at the commencement and at the close of
a session. This disproportion is so great that it
has passed into a proverb—almost into a jest. It
will be remembered that some time back the Lower
House took this matter into its serious consideration,
and endeavoured to find out if some remedy could not
be devised for what was felt on all sides to be an un-
doubted evil. A CJimnittee was appointed, before
which the most competent witnesses to offer sugges-
tions were examined—the Speaker of the House of
Commons, distinguished Members of the French and
American Chambers, and others ; and finally a report
was presented, in which certain changes in the present
manner of conducting debates in England were fa-
vourably spoken of. But when the matter came to
be considered in full House, there was found to be so
great a disinclination to meddle with established
usages and time-honoured forms, that the old license
of debate was left undisturbed. It was stated at the
time that a kind of public opinion was growing up in
the House which would prove sufficient to con-
trol the tendency of Honourable Gentlemen to
indulge in flights of oratory, whether their prompt-
ing motive might be a whiff of vanity or a
spirit of faction. Certainly a change for the better
was perceptible last session, and if it be only
persevered in much irrelevant matter may be omitted
from the laborious compilation of Hansard. As far
as better economy of time in the House of Commons
is concerned, the remedy must be left to the discre-
tion of the Members, acting as they do under a kind
of mutual ccntrol. But there is a second change of
a more directly practical kind which might prove of
eminent benefit in easing one. half of the Legislature,
who have more work on their hands than they can
accomplish, by throwing the superabundant portion
on the other half, the members of which are sitting
with their hands before them during the first two-
thirds of
.the Parliamentary session. The House of
Commons has far too much, the House of Lords far
too little, business brought before it until the session is
just drawing to a close. As matters stand at present
the English Legislature is in the position of a racing-
boat which should only pull the four oars of the
stroke-side until the goal was in sight, and then ship
these to paddle in as it best might with the bow-
oars. What is wanted is a steady and uniform
stroke throughout. The Parliamentary usage for
some time past appears to have become almost estab-
lished in favour of letting the great bulk of Bills take
their initiative in the Common.. Now, fir many
purposes, perhaps for all purposes asking patient and
deliberate investigation, where the privileges of the
Commons are not concerned, the Peers have great
advantages over any body of popular representatives.
They approach questions in a calm and judicial spirit,
almost impossible of attainment in an assembly the
members of which are exposed to the disturbing in-
fluence of the political questions of the day. The law
officers of the Crown in the Lower House are so ab-
sorbed in the occupations arising out of their public
functions, as well as in the necessary discharge of
their duties to their clients, that they cannot is fair-
ness be charged with the additional responsibility of
originating and carrying through sweeping changes in
the statute-book, such as the bankrupt code of last
session. Other working lawyers who may happen to
be Members of the House are there rather with a
view to their own professional advancement than
from any loftier motives ; besides, they too have their
own private practice to attend to. The lay Mem-
bers, again, are too much under the influence of poli-
tical feelings to give themselves up readily to investi-
gations rather of a scientific and abstract character
than of immediate reference to the more exciting
questions of the day. But we need not confine the
questions which should take their initiative in the
Lords solely to points of legal reform. Wherever
there is occasion to grapple with a huge mass of dis-
connected facts, and to deduce from them practical
conclusions and recommendations, the House of
Lords may, with all propriety, be intrusted with the
working of the questions. There are plenty of men to
be found amongst the Peers who are to the full as
shrewd as any of their fellow-subjects. The advan-
tages of official experience are, at least, all on their
side. Not only would such a change as the one we
recommend be for the public interest—the great
end and object of all political machinery—and of
great ease to the other branch of the Legislature,
but it would also infuse stability into the House of
Peers, and conciliate for it that kind of respect which
is always given to an institution which is efficiently
working for the public good. If it were the object
of a Government studiously, but by covert means, to
aim a blow at the political existence of the Peerage,
we know of no more efficient method to accomplish
the end than to leave them without further occupa-
tion than to give a formal assent to the Bills and
measures sent up to them from the Commons. We
are far from insinuating that such an idea has ever
crossed the mind of a First Minister, but if such be
the practical effect of his policy, it comes much to
the same thing in the end. We trust that during the
next session some better order may be taken in this
matter, for it is one of great national importance,
whether we consider the immediate dispatch of public
business, or the ultimate preservation of the balance
of a Constitution which, take it all in all, has worked
well, whilst every other country in Europe has under-
gone the greatest vicissitudes of fortune.—Times.

THE WEATHER AND THE PARKS.

The frost continues with unabated severity, and
there seems every prospect of its enduring for some
considerable time longer. The theremometer at the
Royal Humane Society's receiving-house, Hyde-park,
which on Monday night stood at 25 5 F., fell towards
the morning to 24, but as the day advanced the mer-
cury rose to 27, and continued at that point till after
sunset, when it again receded to 25, which was the
indication at half-past seven last evening. The
wind, which on Monday night was chiefly eastward,
with a southerly bearing, continued to blow, until a
late hour in the morning, with great violence, and
accompanied at intervals with drifts of sleet, or snow.
Towards evening, the wind having veered more
northerly, its violence somewhat abated. The baro-
meter yesterday afternoon, in Hyde-park stood at 29
30. The ice on the Serpentine was 5 inchesin thickness,
but on the long water in Kesnington-gardens it was
three-quarters of an inch thicker, whilst in the Regent'€••
park it had obtained a solidity of six inches—in fact,
in St. James's-park , as well as the foregoing, the ice
has acquired sufficient strength in all parts to admit
of the full enjoyment of skating and sliding, and even
promenading, without any apprehension of danger
from immersion, the only exception being near the
bridge over the Serpentine KATI. in Hyde-park. At
that spot, during the night of Monday, a tempestuous
gale produced an explosion beneath the ice close to
the arches, which shivered the frozen surface into
small pieces, opening a clear way forty feet in width,
and extending the whole breadth of the river. The
explosion was accompanied with a report similar to
a salvo of artillery, and fortunately, not occurring in
the day time, was not attended with disastrous re-
sults. With a view to prevent any person from ven-
turing to this spot, Mr. Superintendent Williams bad
strong barriers placed across the river, on both sides
of the bridge, with the usual boards, marked "Dan-
gerous," and consequently no accident from immer-
sion occurred. Icemen were also placed there to warn
the skaters not to venture within the boundary.

Diss PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY .—Tbe thirteenth
anniversary of this society was celebrated at the Crown
Commercial Inn, Diss, on Wednesday, the 9th instant,
under the able presidency of Mr. Thomas Farrel).
se
that
abtomthoesrt in
charmedrapid suc-
cession, including several of the most influential gen-
tlemen of the Own. After the usual lo) at toasts, over_
be noticed the spirited overtures to Zam a
iello, Caliph of Bagdad, Figaro, &e, which wereP'
sthibelloplvie.ecde.
tur a s , glees,
and sad
amongst song
mecnerasssismoanna,y
performed in
.a manner highly creditable to the amatears
connected with the society, whose efforts were ably
supported by the valuable and effi • cient services
. of Mr.
Grey at the pianoforte. The
elicited
numerous instrumental
and vocal performances unequivocal mails of
approval from the company, amongst
. whom the greatest
unanimity and good feel
feeling prevailed throughout the
evening. The dinner provided
h, for the occasion reflects
the greatest credit on the new landlord, Mr. Lane,
whose ample providence of every
evefry delicacy and luxury of
the season was the subject 9
table, and fully maintained of
egennhearraal
character
remarkf a t the
variety
and profusion acquired for these annual dinners'or b
vbe
worthy predecessor of the present host. -
SEWERS RATF.—A public meeting was Feld on
Monday evening, at the Priory Arms, Priory-read, for
t':e purpose of deliberating as t ) the mode most advis-
able to be adopted towards attaining a principle of per-
fect equality of rsteage with regard to the sewers rate,
the inhabitants of the parish of Lambeth believing suffi:
&est reason exists as tl their being exorbitantly rated
as compared with other districts under the'coLtrol of the
Metroplitan Commissioners. A resolution was unani-
mously I asscd that a deputation he formed for the pur-
pose of making further inquiries in the raid districts
where the alleged disparity is said to exist, and report
thereon, for which purpose the meeting was adjourned,
preparatory to waiting on the Commissioners.