BRITISH POLITICAL LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1633, 27 December 1912, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICAL LIFE.

« THE HOUSE OF COMMONS MAN. A CANDID CRITICISM. Tlio House of Commons is like an island in an inland sfa. Approached with difficulty from the outside, it bears but a distant relation to the surrounding . country. It exists for and by itself. It lias conventions of its own, which' 'are ill. understood by those who have elected its members. It has evolved its own code • of morals and manners; it laughs solemnly o.t its own' esoteric jokes, the humour c-f which is not strong enough to cross its threshold. To prove that it is sternly governed by a sort of parochialism it delights in nick-names, not always.". appropriate, and seldom happy. The fact that tho late Sir William Harcourt was 1 ' known as "Jumbo" comes to us in. the".', guise of solid history, and it _ does not mako.ns hold our sides. In brief,, tho . House of Commons has not its. equal among tho institutions of the world, and •; it is not surprising ' that it takes itself , and its functions very seriously.

Patient and Exacting Constituents, '~ - The honourable gentlemen who com- .- poso this deliberative Assembly are elected by a set of folk at once patient and '. exacting, known as "constituents." They.' are elected after the most humiliating practice yet invented by human ingenuity, called "canvassing. If you look upthe verb "to cam-ass" in the dictionary, << you will discover that it means, "to toss .; in a sheet," a very moderate statement • of the process involved. There is, how-: ever, a very strict limit set upon th« , power of the constituents. They elect; they do not choose. The choice ot candi dates is made either by personal ambi< tion or by the party machine, and it i« clearly understood that membership of the House of Commons is a profession like the Bar, journalism, or the Stock. Exchange. ■■' '■•"" : ', " No sooner has tho newly-elected mem-, ber crossed the dividing sea, no sooner: has he entered the Gothic portals, than tho consciousness of the outside world drops from him like a cloak. He ceases ■ in an instant to be an Englishman and "becomes that strangest product of modern times—a House of Commons man. Ho ~ puts off the prejudices of a moralist or man of principle and sets himself down ~ eagerlv to'play his part in a drama of . simulation. His oratory is merely a dramatic passion. If the House of Commons is henceforth' the stage ol Ms exploits, the memory of his country fades dimly from his mind. The animosities inspired by hostile, principles, the diwae indignation once stirred by treachery, or Vr injustice,, are replaced by a genial- cynic-:.-;;. ism'wliich might be" agreeable if it-w.crc- " no't dangerous. The gladiators,, who just now have limited their insolence only by tho Speaker's forbearance, meet at dm- _ ner to exchange compliments. And the country, duped by the occasional solemnity of its representative when they visit tlieir supporters, does its best to believi .-■ that it is being righteously served. '".'. "..;..";;

""■A"Place'of'.'Recreation'." """,'■ ' 7 The first demand which, the member of the House makes is that -li* should, bo: amused. There is nothing which here--scnte so bitterly as" boredom^"For him the Legislative Chamber is a theatre mS which lie- and his colleagues' are at once : the plavers and the audience. Sir Rich- ,• ard Teiuple's "Letters" contain a vast deal of information.- 'There-are passages which some day will throw light upon the dark places of parliamentary history. But the impression which they leave upoa tho reader's mind is an impression of parochial levity. The'atmosphere is unmistakably the atmosphere of the House of Commons. England or Ireland may be the subject of debate, but whichever it be it is remote indeed from. those who exchange civility or invective across the floor of the House. At the outset Sir Richard >was not disappointed. Ho had not been long at Westminster when he declared that "there was last night a most amusing and entertaining time m the House." He confidently asserts that he "never spent a pleasanter evening. In the turbulent 'eighties, truly, there were few dull moments.' One-day "Churchill -rose and baited Gladstone quite superbly. It really was a wonderful performance." "Another day,- -when they are bent upon talking a .measure out, it was most amusing to watch the animation of the House. Now'he records that Mr. Stansfold spoke '"beautifully" in favour of. a course which Sir Richard believed a grave danger to' the State. Now he likens Mr. T.T; O'Connor to "a comedian essaying to.play a. tragic part." ' The metaphors which he prefers are borrowed either from the stage or the battlefield. "A' mighty pool performance he made of it," says he of Mr. Gladstone, who had introduced an Irish Land Purchase scheme,' There was "a skirmish between the .two front benches," which ended, 'as such skirmishes commonly end,"in air- arranged truce. Sometimes, greatly daring, Sir Richard mixes-the two metaphors. 'So the curtain falls on this drama, he writes in June, 188 G. "Whether a newdrama is now to be begun we kuow not, thought we can conjecture with some confidence. I expect that a new play .will be ... brought out, and then, we shall have to • go on fighting." And when members-are tired of drama' or the fight, they can fall back upon the parliamentary "game, whose rules they perfectly i understand, and thus hoodwink, the country again into a belief in their high seriousness.

Engrossed .in Trifles. Dr. Farqnharson in, his # book sees the House from ' a slightly different angle. , It is the triltes which engross him.. He will tell you in an instant who was the best-dressed man in the House of his time, and who (lie meanest. He will cheerfully, award the prize to the handsomest and tho ugliest of our legislators. The irrelevance of either aspect cannot but strike tho simple citizen. To serve his country is a task which'none should assume .save in a spirit of humility. No thought of.ambition or entertainment should mar the sacrifice of self. A fierce sinceritv should inspire ovory word spoken in tho.public cause; A 1 cynical friendship between two pohti-. dans, each of whom believes tho other an enemy of tho State,'should- bo an impossibility. The example of Pitt, who for twentv years exchanged no amicable word, with Fox. should bo followed by all. Thedrama, the fight, and the game should be sent into the limbo of forgotten things. No. great enterprise could be carried 4o a successful issue in the paltry spirit of these 'metaphors, and-tho proper government of a country is the greatest enterprise which human courage-and'human-sincerity can attempt. Even if the members of the House, of Commons receive little training for their office and are frequently without conspicuous qualifications, they might forget for a-while 'tho '"tactics" which are the bane of politics and recognise that they owe their duty not to the House, but to the country. Thus it is that the House.of Commons, by its love of theatrical-display, has alienated the sympathy and understanding of tho people. It might have been a grave deliberative assembly, and it prefers to turn itself into a'circus in which the audionco, few in number,- is packed away into an uneasy gallery and in which tho meanest super receives eight pounds, d week for his pains. An excessive salary, in sooth, for so poor a performance. And if the players do not mend their ways they w-ill coino down ono nighT to'-find tho House shut up and the key buried in the mud of the Thames—" An-English-man" in the "Daily Mail."