“THE FIRST COMMONER IN THE LAND.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12409, 24 January 1901, Page 2

“THE FIRST COMMONER IN THE LAND.”

As the very first duty of the new Parliament Ayas the appointment of a new Speaker (Avrites “ Ex-Attache ”), some few notes concerning this important office, the holder of which bears by A’irtue of a statute enacted several centuries ago, the title of “ The First Commoner in the Land,” may be of timely interest. It is a question, indeed, athether the Speaker of the House of Commons is not the most poAverful personage of the British Empire. For the latter is governed by Parliament, representing the will of the people, and by Ministers of State, representing the majority of the votes in the national Legislature, and it is the Speaker Avho is the supreme authority over Parliament; ■that is to say, the most important portion thereof, namely, the House of Commons. He can suspend a member; he can stop the Prime Minister on a point of procedure; he can close a debate ; he can decide the most momentous constitutional questions by a feAV Avords spoken in private conference behind the chair; he can overrule the Cabinet on points which may be vital.to its policy, and AA’hioh may either enhance' or discredit the authority in the House, and it is lie alone Avho decides Avho is to -speak, and who is to remain silent, no Secretary of State, nor even the First Lord of the Treasury, who holds the title of leader of the House, being able to address a single remark in Parliament without having previously obtained the permission of the First Commoner in the Land by means of the peculiar process knoAvn as “ catching the Speaker’s eye.” There is no optic in the Avorld that has played so important a part in history as the “eye” of the Speaker. Its power and rights "are not based on any Avritten law, but on long-established custom and tradition. Very often several members rise in their places at one and the same- time endeaA'Onring to arrest the wandering optic of the Speaker, and it is then free to that august functionary to make his selection and to indicate the member Avho has his permission to speak. While he generally concedes priority to new comers who are about to address the House for the first time, yet he is so impartial in the performance of this particular duty that, within the memory c-f the present generation at any rate, no Speaker of the House of Commons -has ever yet been taxed Avitli unfairness. Of course, this extremely antiquated method is attended by many disadvantages, and it often happens that members are prevented from addressing the House for Aveeks together, and debarred from taking any part in the debate owing to their FAILURE TO CATCH THE SPEAKER’S “EYE.” Failing eyesight- under the circumstances is an almost insuperable bar to the retention of the Speakership, and it Ayas solely on this ground that Speaker Brand, one of the most remarkable occupants of tbe office during the reign of Queen Victoria, Avas compelled to resign his office, during the closing term of Avhich he was forced to wear g-old-rimmed spectacles, Avhich had a very disconcerting effect. Indeed, it -would have been preferable from a Legislative point of view if he had AADr-n a monocle, since in that case there Avould never have been any doubt as to the direction of the “Speaker’s eye.” Non would a monocle seem so out of keeping with the Speaker’s full-bottomed wig and judicial robes as one might be disposed to imagine. Sir Henry Romer, for, instance, one of the 30,000d0l a year judges of tbe High Court of Judicature of Great Britain, Avears a -monocle Avhen on the Bench, and it ■serves to give his clean-cut judicial face a decided appearance of keen and critical penetration. It is said that when he looks through it at a AA'itness, the latter no longen dares to prevaricate, but feels the necessity of avoAving -the Ml truth, and that it is likewise of great use to him in his dealings .Avith. the jury, since Avithout going to , the trouble of making any verbal remark which might furnish counsel Avith a ground for an application for a mav- trial, he merely by the way he allows his glass to drop from his eye, conveys to the juny his opinion as to the veracity of a statement -of a witness, or as to the value of any particular argument by the laAvyers pleading before him. The manner in which the Speaker is elected at the opening of a ucav Parliament is as follows : —On the day appointed by royal proclamation for the meeting of the newly-elected Legislature, the members as.semble in tbe House of Commons, the Speaker’s chair remaining empty,) and the ma.ee of office being under instead of oh the. table. A few minutes after two o’clock — that is tbe usual hour for the ceremony—the doorkeeper announces “ Black Rod,” and the latter, Avho is the principal executive official of the House of Lords, enters, ’and Avith a number of bows to the empty Speaker’s chair,' invites “ this honourable House” to repair “to another -nlaco” to hear the reading of the royal commission by

means of which. Parliament is 'opened. •• He then retires, 'bowing thrice, and .is quickly followed by the chief clerk of the House of Commons, a Queen’s counsel wearing the wig, silk robes, THE QUEER-FASHIONED COAT, black knee breeches and silk stockings of his office, and ,bv most;' of the members of Parliament, who take up their position at the har of the House of Lords and listen thereupon to the reading of the commission opening the new Parliament, the royal commissioners consisting of the Lord High Chancellor and of four other peers arrayed in the scarlet and ermine barred robes of their rank, being seated in a line on the woolsack in front of the throne. At _ the conclusion of the reading of the sovereign’s message opening Parliament the Commons flock back to the lower chamber. After they have taken their places, the Clerk of the House, sitting at the table below the empty Speaker’s chair, rises and silently points three fingers at the chief representative of the administration, known as the leader of the House. The latter thereupon rises and proposes the election to the Speakership of some candidate whose name has usually been already agreed upon jointly by the leaders of the Administration party. and of the Opposition, the chief of the latter, in accordance with time-hon-oured usage, seconding the nomination. Seldom,— -certainly not within the memory of the present generation,—has there been a full-fledged contest for .the office of Speaker,; ..For the Government, conscious of their numerical superiority, always endeavour to secure a candidate who will be entirely acceptable to the minority, so that there may be no question whatsoever .as to the impartiality of -the Chair. Indeed it has often happened that the Speaker by the wish and consent of the party in power has been selected from the ranks of the Opposition. If there is no objection raised to the candidate thus nominated the Clerk of the House, after the lapse of two minutes, as indicated by the sand-glass on the table before him, arises from his seat at the table and, without uttering a word, points with his three fingers at the nominee. The fatter then rises from his seat and, addressing the Clerk of the House by name, expresses his appreciation of the honour conferred upon him, requesting that he may have the support of every member, “ without which the Speaker can do nothing, but having which, there is little he cannot do.” As soon as he has concluded his Tittle address the leader of the Government smiles across the body of the House to the leader of the Opposition, whereupon both arise from their places and conduct the Speakerelect to the Speaker’s chair. Standing before the latter, under its canopy and facing the Chair, he beckons to the Sergeant-at-Arms, who, withdrawing the mace of office from beneath the table,, places it on the latter ,the members on," both sides of the House having with one accord risen to their feet. As soon as the mace has been placed on the table the Speaker no longer “ elect,” but duly installed, gives a signal to the members to reseat themselves, and then the leader of the Government party delivers A BRIEF SPEECH OF CONGRATULATION, in response to which the Speaker “unreservedly, places himself in the hands of the House.” Then as people are just beginning to wonder’ what will nappen next the Speaker rises again to his feet, and in his official voice, a distinctly different and more authoritative organ from that employed during the earlier proceedings, exclaims: “ The question is that this House will now ad-' journ.” No objection being taken the Speaker leaves the chair, and when he next resumes it, does so no longer in plain street dress, but arrayed in the robes and full-buttoned wig of’his office... The office of Speaker carries with it a magnificent official residence in the northern towers of the Palace of Westminster, the bright and lofty rooms being lighted with great windows commanding views of the Thames. • In addition to' this residence, the Speaker receives a salary of 30,000d0l a year and allowances amounting to almost as much "more, besides a' retiring pension of 20,000d0l a year for the remainder of his life. Moreover 1 , it is the prerogative of each Speaker of the House of Commons to be offered a peerage and a seat in the House’ of Lords on Ms retirement.

When the House is in session the Speaker gives a series of official banquets and of levees. These are very stately affairs, and the gentlemen who attend them are expected to appear either in uniform or in ' court dress, the ordinary evening dress 1 being strictly tabooed. The Speaker him- J. Self receives his guests in a black court suit and steel-hilted sword, and is attended by , his train-bearer, his purse-bearer, his gentle- | man-in-waiting and his chaplain. Speakers’ j banquets take place in the state _ dining- i room, the panelled walls of which ■ are 1 adorned with full-length portraits of recent Speakers in their robes of office. The long j table, as well as the huge sideboard, are i loaded down with magnificent old plate, some • of it constituting part of the loot ! taken' from the Spanish Armada, during the 1 reign of Queen Elizabeth, and helonginig.es

officio to the Speaker, of, the ..House of Com= ratals. I may add that he takes, wine with old-fashioned courtesy with’ each; of "Ms guests in turn, and that the health of the sovereign is proposed and drank with DECOROUSLY SINCERE FORMALITY. ,

It was stated in politicalcircles in England that the Speaker of the Fourteenth Parliament of the Victorian reign, which, elected in the summer of. 1895, terminates its existence recently would not accept re-elec-tion, and that, he had tired of an office which calls for the exercise of the most superhuman patience. For, no matter what twaddler is on his legs, the Speaker must , rive his whole attention. He cannot slip out to the smoking-room, or to thelobhy. He must remain in the chair, bored literally to death. Like sad Prometheus fastened to the rock, In vain he looks for pity to tho clod;. A grandson of John GulM, celebrated in the early years’of Queen Victoria’s reivn as a prize-fighter, bookmaker and racehorse owner, in which latter capacity he won the Derby of 1846 with' Pyrrhus, the retiring Speaker, William Court Gully, has provedan rinqualified success during his tenure of the office of “The First Commoner of the Land,” and the news that he had refused to serve again was received with-keen regret,' and with the expression of a, hope that he might be induced to reconsider Ms decision. In. fact, he has been in every way a ; distinguished occupant of’that “Speaker’s Chair” which has existed since the year 1376, when Sir Thomas Hungerford was elected as the first Speaker of the House of Commons. On the.long list of fits!; commoners who have directed the proceedings of the House during the near six centuries which have elapsed since that time are to" be’found the names cl Thomas Chaucer, son of the poet, who was Speaker during the reign of King Henry IV. j Sir Thomas Moore;' Sergeant .Velvet ton, who in the prayer with which ho was wont to ppen.;tho . proceedings each day reverently' besought the Almighty “ to expel darkness and vanity from cur minds and partiality" 1 from our. speeches”; William Lenthal. who was the, , renowned Speaker of the House .during the reign of the ill-fated King Charles I.; Henry Addington, who’was Speaker in the closing years of the last century, and last, tut by no means least, Viscount Peel. One word in conclusion. The: Speaker can take no part in debates, and has no vote excepting in ■ one • solitary circumstance, namely, when the numbers'are equal. Then he has the casting vote, and it is to ai casting vote of this kind that the Act of Settlement was passed, by virtue of which Queen Victoria occupies the throne of the British Empire. : 1 ■