The morning call., 1893-05-21
IN THE COMMONS.
Duties of Parliamentary
Whips.
KEEPING THEIR MEN IN LINE.
Onerous Duties of r1embers of the
Commons Who Are Often
Little Known.

The duties of the parliamentary whips
are very varied and extremely onerous,
says the Illustrated London News No
men in public life work harder or make
less show to the world To be great whip
is to possess rare combination of qualities
appreciated intensely by your chief. but lit
tie understood by the electorate at large.
You must be bland and cool and persuasive.
capable of tyranny which at need can melt
suddenly into winning urbanity, genial to
the point of indulging every mans
standard of jocularity (his is, perhaps. the
severest test, adroit enough TO lead the
eccentric member by the nose while he
foudly imagines that he is asserting alb
solute independence; in tine. you must
have an abnormal eve for human nature,
and your disposition must embrace cyni-
cism and optimism by turns and supply
customers with the milk of human
kindness and the waters of Marah
with equal readiness and effusion.
They SIT on bench very near
the door, through which it is the ambition
of a member to fit unperceiv-d TO keep an
appointment with his mother-in-law. If
he is a Liberal he finds the open couute-
nance of Mr.. Macarthur beaming upon
hin: if he is Conservative he faces the
gentle Establishments of Lord Arthur Hill,
Sydney Herbert or Lord Walter Gordon
LennOX: and if he is Liberal UniOnist he
Is promptly engaged in q conversation by
Austen Chamberlain or Mr.. Anstruther.
Inc truth is that the most peremptory
domestic mandate Is of no avail unless a
member can get "a pair" and it is the
business Of the whips in such circum-
stances to discover some gentleman on
the opposite side whose private affairs
are equally urgent. But the pride of the
party whip Is to bring up every man in a
great division who is not Frustrated by i'll
ness, and the House has seen on historic
nights members carried from sick beds to
register priceless votes.
Two rooms n the lobby are assigned to
the ministerial and opposition whips, Mr..
Mari0Iibanks and his colleagues use one.
ana T. other Is shared by tho Conseryp-
lives and Liberal Unionists. A third room
IS set apart for the national whips, John
Deasy, Sir Thomas ESmo onde. DR.. Tanner
and Florence O'Driscoll. Colonel Nolan.
the Parnellite whip. is without a local
habitation and has somewhat of the ha-
rassed air which probably distinguished
the dove during her search for perch in
the deluge.
The business in the whips' room Is ex-
tenslve, Tor great many letters have To
be written ami mem 0ers have 10 be re-
minded by tremendously underscored mis-
siyes Of impending divisions. Commuters
oil the house have to be formed and spea *
ers supplied everywhere. Yet amid thcse q
multlfarlous occupations the whips have
time, to look beautiful and to indalc in
manly .pastImes. Mr.. Marjoribanks Is a
dead shot with any tirearnl you please.
and has figured in the House Of Com,
mons team with Sir William Walrond
IN the shooting match with the House of
Lords. Take whip into a corner and
the chances are that he will promptly
talk Of sport. Florence O'Driscoi, who ia
envied by tho house for his brilliant chew
elure, has tales of "big game" all over the
world. Sir Herbert Maxwell is an enthu.
siastic naturalist and a brilliant literateur.
and there are stories OF DR.. Tanners nerve
and dexterity In the surgical profes sion.
but believe both could pot" bird with
Infinite Zest. The business of "whippinc''
seems to sharpen the appetite for pastimes
of the field. though Mr.. Causton's sport is
SAID lo he confined to gentle ambling in the
Row. For the rest. your whip stands in
the lobby. saps his chest and cries with
Fred Bayham, MANLY, sir, manly!"