Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-22
THE KINGS REPORTER
OLD CUSTOM IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS.
Leader Of the Body Writes Out a
Special Report Of All
Proceedings.
From Tit Bits.
CIV. F. Lohnes.)
431a West High street.

From Tt-Bits.
At IL o'clock on nights when the house OF
commons is sitting Mr.. Balfour, If he be
not already in the chamber, saunters In
takes a quarto sheet of note paper with the
official crest OF the house from the table
and a blotting pad, seats himself on the
treasury bench, produces from his Waistcoet
pocket fountain pen attached to his golo
tandem watch chain and devotes the hour
or 80 that remains before the adjournment
of the house to the writing of a letter.
Though few are aware of it, this letter Is
an account of the nights proceedings in the
house, which the leader of the house sends
to the king.
It will be asked why should the leader of
the house of commons write for the king
nightly report OF the doings of the house2
is It not, in view of the reports published
in the morning newspapers, a sheer work
of supererogation? The king no doubt reads
the Times. In that journal his majesty
often finds as many as ten or twelve col
umns filled with the proceedings of the
house of commons the night before. Sure
~ such a report ought to satisfy even the
most voracious appetite for intelligence OF
the sayings and doings of the representa-
tive chamber. In truth, the writing of that
nightly report by the leader of the house
for the sovereign is one of many illustra-
lions of the tenacity with which parliament
clings to forms and ceremonies which have
come down from the far-off past, no mat
ter how remote they may have been made
from the realities of the present day by the
revolutions accomplished by time.
Origin Of the Custom.
We have TO go back to the early years Of
the reign of George III for the origin of the
sending Of this nightly report Of the pro-
ceedings of the house of commons to the
sovereign. At that time 1t was useless to
go to the newspapers for information about
parliament. An editor ran the risk of being
heavily fined or imprisoned If he attempted
to give the people, through his columns,
the slightest information as to what their
representatives were doing or saying IN the
house OF commons At the same time, al
though according to the theory of the con-
stitution the sovereign presides over the de-
lberaUons OF parliament, the actual pres
ence Of the sovereign in the house of lords,
eave on ceremonial occasions, such as the
opening of the session, or in the house Of
commons at any time, would be regarded as
Unconstitutional Queen Victoria, for In
stance, was never in the house of commons
during the whole course of her long reign
OF siXty-three years.
/, But Gearge III determined that he should
be kept informed in some fashion of the
Proceedings of the house of commons. He
thereforth commanded Lord North the
the house OF commons, to send him a report
nightly, and North being subservient
eourtier, compiled, despite the regulation
which parliament enacted years before In
che time OF the Stuart kings, that In order
10 guard against the arbitrary interference
o. the crown In its proceedings the sover-
oisn shonld neither hear IL debates nor