The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-04-24
Wadsworth Dispatch,
PUBLISHED sEMi-wEEKLy
So 90 Per Annum,
GL!MPSES OF PARLIAMENT,

$50 Va
AS a back bench man the only real
complaint | have to make is of the
woeful waste of time. One goes
down to the house every day-Sat-
urdays and Wednesdays excepted
at 4 O'Clock, and you are supposed
to remain there till midnight. On
Wednesdays the house meets at II
and adjourns at $3.50. What do we
10 all this timer To be interested
in everything that is going on is
fatty impossible. A quantity of the
business is of local character, deal
Ing with places and schemes of
which we know nothing. Then there
are terribly protracted debates on
the second readings of bills, occa-
sionally interesting, but necessarily
full of repetitlons. l do not we'll see
how this is to be prevented, but it
is a shocking infliction. The com
mittee stage of a bill you have al
ready mastered is interesting and
instructive, but even this stage is
too ~protracted, and then ONE a
later s~tage--the report stage-when
a great deal is said all over again,
and even this is frequently follow
ed by a debate ON the third reading.
Of. course you are not in the house
all the time. There Is the library,
the tearoom and the smoking room,
where you may play chess and
draughts, but no other game what
soeve But nobody does anything
vehemently. An air of languor per:
vades the whole place. Listlessness
abounds. Members stroll from one
room to another, turn over the
newspapers and yawn in each 9th
er's face. In the summer months
the terrace by the riverside has
been recently converted into a kind
of watering place From 5 O'Clock
to z it is crowded with fine ladies'
and country cousins drinking tea
and devouring Strawberries. Occa-
sionally some parliamentary person
of importance will choose to stalk
by, and even-such is the affability
Of true greatness-have a cup of tea
with a party of friends. A poorer
way of killing time has not, | think,
yet been discovered, but it is con-
vineing proof of the ennui of par
liamentary life.
The great problem of ministers is
the reform of the rules of the house
of ,conimons-how to make the
house at once a deliberative and yet
a businesslike assembly.
And yet men do not willingly
strike off the chains of this slavery.
A private member of parliament
nowadays gets nothing, neither pud-
ding nor praise, in exchange for his
time and his money. Patronage he
has absolutely none-not a single
place. even in the postofice. to give
away. Nor has he a single privilege
that l am aware of His routine du-
ties ON committees r onerous, nor
are his opportunities for making
speeches, ii he wishes to do 30, 9th
erwise than few and far between.
His leaders treat him with .frigid
civility, and nobody cares for a let
ter from him unless it incloses a
postal order for at least 10 shillings.
And yet the labor of winning d seat
and of retaining a seat is very great,
nor is the expense insignificant.
When one thinks of all the differ
ent ways Of spending e70O, q parlia-
mentary election does not obviously
strike you as being n of the most
delightful. 1t may be said you have
the opportunity of legislating on
your own account. You may bring
in a bill of your own and have the
satisfaction Of hearing it read a
third time. Hardly is this true. In
former days some of the most s
tul laws i'll the statute book were
pioneered through the house by
private members. Bat now, SO
greedy have governments become
that they take nearly all the time
available for legislative purposes,
and unless the private member gets
the first Ilaee in the ballot he has
not a chance of carrying any meas
ure through If it -cxcites the least
opposition. But when all is said and
done the house of commons is a fas-
einat1ng place.-Cornhill Magazine.