Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-20

y X
{: The English Parliament \
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4 By a Special Contributor. !
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1t appears that our English cousins
are about to enjoy the pleasures OF q
general election and it may be worth
while to consider briefly the nature of
the parliament. The English parliament.
consists of three elements, first the
crown as represented by the cabinet,
then the house of lords and finally the
house of
For all practical purposes the full
legislative power is vested in the house
of commons, which is elected for seven
years. unless sooner dissolved by act of
the crown. Such dissolution, however,
MAJ be made at any time, and it is a
very rare occurrence for a parliament to
last for the full period for which it is
supposed to be elected. Such dissolution
may come through the Initiative of par
lament itself. or at the unintluenced will
of the prime minister. In the first case
the regular method of arriving at dis
solution is for the parliament to out
vote some bill proposed by the ministry.
In such a case the queen must do one of
two things, either call for the resignation
of the ministers. or dissolve parliament
and call for a new election.
In case the crown takes the initiative
in the dissolution of parliament it Is gem
orally for a purely political purpose. Just
as at present, it is considered that the
conditions are such that the election will
result specially favorably for the present
ministry. The parliament which will be
prorogued next Tuesday was elected in
1895, and hence would have come to a
natural end in two years. But no one
knows what problems would arise in
those two years, and it appears to be a
safer proceeding to order a new election
now, while the popular sentiment seems
to be strongly in favor of the govern
ment.
The election that will take place dur
ing the month of October will affect d.
rectly the seats of the six hundred and
seventy members that compose the house
Of commons and the sixteen representa-
tives peers Of Scotland while indirectly
it concerns the makeup of the ministry.
The house OF at present con-
sists Of $40 members, of whom 465 repre-
sent England, so Wales, Il Scotland and
103 Ireland. The representation is no
where distributed strictly according to
p0ny,1ntiO,, fo~ y,o~xr ,%1o,, o~~o:lo-.
lions enter into the assignment. The
great universities have some represent
tatives who are elected by the members
thereof. The great commercial towns
are also given special consideration. At
the last general election in 1895, the
alignment of parties was as follows:
Conservatives, $40; liberal-unionist, Il;
Gladstone liberals, 1T; n~ationalists, II;
Parnelites, IL; the ministerial majority
was 152 but is now somewhat less.
One striking popularity Of the qualif-
cations of the member of parliament TO
an American is that nc representative
is required to be d resident of the district
from which ne is elected. AS a result it
liCQucItly udppeuS IldI d uluu u!dy, 1OT
one reason or another, be a candidate in
several districts, and if elected from
more than one. he selects the one which
he prefers to serve, thus necessitating a
new election in the others.
The house of lords consists of about
$50 members. There are six princes of
the blood, two archbishops, 81 dukes, %
marquises, 116 earls, 25 %viscounts, "a
bishops, 300 barons. IL Scottish represen-
tative peers elected for each parliament
and % Irish representative peers.
The cabinet consists of between fifteen
and twenty officials selected from the
two houses of parliament and possesses
the executive functions of the govern
ment. The first proceeding of the new
parliament. or the beginning of any ses-
sion is the consideration of the address
from the throne. This address is pre-
pared by the prime minister, with the
assistance of the cabinet, and is replied
to by the leader of the opposition. The
members of the cabinet must be men,
bers of parliament, but are not allowed
a vote. Hence When a member of the
house of commons is appointed to a
position in the ministry, such appoints
ment is conditional on his reelection by
his constituents, who thus have an op-
portunity to decide whether they will be
The method of procedure in the British
parliament is radically different from