The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-04-10

There the committee Is special, a make
shift for certain purposes, such as an in
vestigaticn, Here 1t controls legislation.
In England bills originate in the execu-
tive departments. We have thousand
bills to their one, and hundred times
as much legislation. Bills are not intro
duced in the British parliament for
effect, for "buncombe," as thousands Of
bills are with us every year. The house
Of commons consists of $40 members,
distributed as follows: II gland and
Wales, 495; Ireland, 1903; s. otland, 70,
A quorum consists of forty members.
The French parliament has two houses,
the chamber of deputies and the senate.
The former consists of $40 members and
the latter of 800. Whenever the presi-
dent of the republic wishes to do SO he
may, with the consent of the senate, dis
solve the chamber of deputies and order
q new election. He may adjourn them
for any time not exceeding month. but
he cannot exercise this power more than
twice in the same session. The deputies
are elected by ballot Of the electors of
the republic; successful candidate
must have, as in Rhode Island, ma
jority Of all the votes cast, and this num-
Der must be equal to one-fourth of the
electors on the roll. The French hold
their general elections on Sunday.
An odd custom of theirs is, in case of
. tie vote between two candidates, to
give the election to the elder. The sem
ators are elected by sort of electoral
college, composed Of the deputies repre-
senting that department or province,
members Of the general council, council
ors of the reimbursement and delegates
chosen by municipal council. This is
very much like giving into the hands Of
the representatives from Illinois, the
members of the legislature and delegates
selected by the city councils or boards
Of aldermen the election of United
States senator-a queer method, surely.
Senators are elected for nine years,
though there are still some life senators.
In France they have committees, as we
do, and their public sessions usually be-
gin at Q o'clock in the afternoon. Their
debates are often bitter and personal,
and if the ex-speaker happens upon a
particularly lively session he will no
doubt be reminded of some of his own
experiences at home. French legislators
draw annual salaries of 5000 francs, or
about 81 600.
The German parliament lisa somewhat
complicated institution. It has two
houses-the bundesrath, or federal coun-
Gil, and the reichstag, or diet, of the
realm. In the former are represented
the individual states of Germany,
twenty-six in number, consisting of four
kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duch-
les, seven principalities, the three free
towns of Hamburg, Lubbock and Bre-
men and the province of Alsace.L Lorraine.
Each of these states has parliament of
its own, as has each of our states. The
6fty-eight members of the bundesrath,
which is presided over by the federal
chancellor formerly Bismarck), are ap-
pointed by the governments of the states;
the 397 members of the reichstag are
elected for terms of three years by popu-
lar ballot. Deputies have no salary, but
during the session theyhavesthe right of !
travelling free on the government rail
ways. The federal council usually meets
two or three months before the deputies.
In Hungary the governmental
conditions are little peculiar. Austria
has one parliament and Hungary an
other, each consisting of two chambers.
The sovereign, the army, navy and diplo-
matte service are common to both. In
addition to these two legislatures there
is another, known as the delegations,
of 100 members, who are also
members Of the other parliaments. The
Austrian parliament sends sixty of it's
members to the delegations-forty from
the lower house and twenty from the
upper-and the Hungarian parliament
does precisely the same thing. The leg
islation of the two parliaments is purely
local in each case. The delegations leg
lslate for the whole empire-the army,
navy, diplomatic service, etc. Bills are
by the ministers, and if the
bills are rejected the ministers resign.
Belgium has parliament composed
of the senate and the chamber of repre-
sentatives. To be a senator one must
have attained tine age of forty years and
pay tax of at least 2,116 francs yearly.
In those provinces where the list Of
citizens paying this sum does not reach
to the proportion of one in 5000 of the
population, the names of those citizens
are added who pay the largest amount
of direct taxes, SO as to bring the num-
Der up to the required portion. The
effect, however, is to place the right to
sit in the senate solely within reach Of
the rich.
in Italy the chamber of deputies con-
sists of 500 members, elected from the
people, all citizens of twenty-one years
who can read and write, and who have
paid taxes to the amount of nineteen
lire, being voters. The senate consists
Of an unlimited number OF like men,
bers, nominated by the king. They must
be above forty years of age, and must
have attained certain degree of emf
nence in the service of the state or the