Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-20
House of. Commons

..' .SO0 III
There is a story told of an ancient
DANDY In London who. taking, one
down Bond street. nes nesus an acc.
qualntance hurrying in the direction
Of Westminster. whittier away. 80
last this hot day?' murmured the
dandy. TO the house of commons
cried his strenuous friend, brushing
past him. What said the dandy. |
With a yawn, does that go on shll?'
onme still attracts an enormous.
amount of Of an public ataene
ton" Mr.. Birrell said in a lecture
delivered in 1896. What are called
politics occupy in Great Britain a
curiously prominent place. Litera-
ture, art, science, are avenues to a
more personally attractive than that
which awaits at the end Of his career
the once prominent party politician.
with us a party leader looms more
largely in the public mind, excites
more curiosity, than almost any other
description of mortal. He often ap-
pears where he would not seem to
have n particular business. If a
bust is to be unveiled of a man Of
letters, If a public eulogum is to be
pronounced on a man Of science, If
the health is to be proposed of a
painter or an actor. or if some distin-
guished foreigner is to be Toasted, the
astute managers of the function, anx-
ious to dEaw a crowd. and to make
stance, at all events. to secure the
presence of Mr.. Balfour, or Lord
Rosebery, or Lord Salisbury, or Mr..
Chamberlain, rather than of Lord
Kelvin or Leslie Stephen.
"The fact is that politicians, and
particularly the heroes Of the house
of commons. the gladiators of poll
popularity which naturally belongs
to famous jockeys. which once be-
longed to the heroes Of the prize ring.
1t is more difficult to explain this
than to understand it. Our party
strife, u parliamentary contests,
have long presented many Of the
features Of a sport When Mr.. Glad
mons, with an irresistible twinkle of
the eye, that he was an old parlia-
mentary hand the house was con-
vulsed with laughter, and the next
morning the whole country chuckled
with delight. We all like to think that
our leading statesman was not only
full of enthusiasm n zeal. but also
a willy old fellow. who knew a thing
or two better than his neighbors. I
have always thought the instanta-
tneous popularity OF this remark OF
Mr.. Gladstone's illustrates very we'll
the %curiously mixed feelings we enter
tain toward those great parliamentary
chieftains who have made their repu-
tations on the floor of the house Of
commons"
1.-The great characteristic Of the
house Of is that it is a de-
Lucrative and consultative chamber,
meeting together for the purposes of
framing laws (if it considers any new
laws necessary which are to bind
the whole nation, and Of criticizing
the executive. 1t does not meet for
the purpose Of oratory, or to strength
en- party organization, but to frame
laws Of universal obligation and to
find fault with OF support ministers.
This at once gets rid of the platform
orator, and establishes the difference
between public meetings and the
house of commons. There is
nothing the house of commons hates
more than to be reminded of the
~purgatorial flames through which
each member has had to pass in or
der to take his seat by the side of
the speaker; and therefore it is that
the utterance in all innocence, by
some new member of either party, of
I1lc CIlcS dAO "dSCll"OluS WILL "AAASAl
he was accustomed to enliven his
'lectioneering speeches never fails to
excite the angry groans of his op-
ponents and the sarcastic smiles OF
his friends. 50" Another marked
characteristic of the house of COM
mons is its total indifference to out
side regulations or great fortunes.
whose, chimneys blacken a whole
countryside, merchants whose ships
pillow the broad and marrow seas,
spectators in cotton and in sugar,
mayors and provosts whose portraits
adorn town halls, whose names are
household words in their own dis
tricts, lawyers so eminent that they
courts for less than a hundred gum
cas-, need not hope to be received by
the house of commons otherwise thar
with languid indifference. If they
prove to be bores, so much the worse:
if they prove not to be .bores, sc
much the better. If they push them
selves to the front. it will be by par.
liamentary methods: il they remain
insignificant, it is only what was te
be expected. Never was an assembly
so free from all faint of mercenariness
as the house Of commons. It does
not care a snap of its finger whether
the income Of a new member is f100,.
VVU q year OF Ia b week WIAcSIAcI
his father was a duke or a. black.
smith; it's only ice with him II
that, If he has anything to say, he
may say 1t, and that If he has moth.
ing to say, he will say nothing.
1.-The house of commons Is often
said to be a place OF great good.
fellowship. Within certain necessar.
lily restricted limits 1t is. 1t IL dimcult
to maintain %aloofness. You may find
yourself serving on q committee
alongside some one whose public ut.
terances or party intrigues you have
always regarded with aversion; blu
it may easily be that you agree with
him, not, 1t may be. as to the govern
ment of Ireland or the sacred prin.
ciples Of free trade. but as to thu pru.
dence or folly of a particular line OF
railway, or the necessity Of q new
water-supplyN for some large town
You hob-a-nob at luncheon, you
grumble together after your dinner
you lament the spread OF football
clubs and brass bands in your respec'
tive constituencies. you criticize your
leaders, and are soon quite at home IN
the society of the very man you
thought you detested.s There Is moth
ing like common topic to break thu
ice, and two members OF parliament
have always something to talk about.
HUGE DIAMOND FOUND.
London, Jan. 1s.-(eunday. W
NHsHH--AA AA-~~t