Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-05-08


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baronet will make flat of the fiat
test dimensions.
Very shortly after the appoint
ment of all these gentlemen in their |
offices, they win be subjected to an
inconvenience not very agreeable.
Those Of them who have seats in
the house of commons will have to |
be reelected. They were only
elected three weeks ago, and they
will now have to return TO their
constituents and be elected again,
for it is law Ga written law this
time) that no member of parliament
shall accept a crown appointment
without vacating his seat. This law
was passed in the days of one of the
later Georges, and was intended as
aTemedy for one of the abuses of
royal prerogative which had sprung
up in the days of Queen Anne, and
of the first two Georges. Such
prime ministers as Sir Robert Wal
pole and the Duke of Newcastle, if
they found a man of ability in the
opposition troublesome, would buy
him up by the offer of a place in the
cabinet, and the obstreperous patriot
became a quiet pla.eman (ofice-
holder, as we should say). 1t was
considered fair, therefore, that the
constituents of such a gentleman
should have the opportunity of say
ing whether they wanted in the
latter capacity one whom they had
elected in the former. Very often
they did not. The law still exists,
an inconvenient one to politicians,
but a salutary one from the peoples
point of view. Those cabinet min
listers, on the other hand, who have
seats in the house of lords, do not
undergo this trouble, as their seats
are hereditary, not elective; but if
our sweet-scented baronet should
fail ofre-election, he mustgiveup not
only his seat in parliament, but his
under-secretaryship, for the foreign
under-secretary must be in the COM
mons.
One feature attendant upon Eng
lish elections is of interest as bearing
upon a matter recently discussed in
our cOngress-the presence of ma
tional troops at elections. The laws
against this have long been very
stringent in England. 1t is pro-
Vided by them that no soldier under
arms and in ranks can be allowed
within less than two miles of any
place in which an election is being
held. Now the English people are
very fond of their volunteers, and a
little after Easter every year they
have d great volunteer festival in
some place where there is an open
country suitable for the purpose,
which is attended by volunteers in
companies and regiments from all
parts of the country, who are formed
in brigades and divisions and re-
viewed and drilled, and finally go
through all the maneuvres of a
sham-fght. The affair holds the
same rank among public amuse-
ments as the Epson races and the
university bOat-race. This year the
volunteer festival had been fixed
for the same day as was afterwards
appointed for the Brighton election,
and the place was to be the south
downs, as they are called, in the
immediate neighborhood of that
city. When it occurred to the
authorities that the two events were
to come off on the same day, it was
resolved that the review must not
take place, and great was the dis
may among the many thousands
who make that occasion their annu-
al frOlic. Petitions came in begging
that the review might take place,
and others demanding that the law
should be enforced; and the excite
ment was so great that a cabinet
meeting was held at which, after
long discussion, it was determined
that, as the volunteers are militia
under local Influences and not a
part of the regular army, and as
they are by express enactment pro-
hibited from police duty of all
kinds, the law in question did not
apply to them; so the review and
the election took place on the same
day and the politicians and the
pleasure-seekers were both satisfied.
Such are the securities which have
been established in England against
executive encrOachment. The party
now in power in our country, so
called, spent a whole extra session
and a large portion of a regular one
in resisting similar enactments by
our own congress.