THE LATE SIR ERSKINE MAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7656, 5 June 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LATE SIR ERSKINE MAY.

It lias been announced that Sir Erakine May, the famous authority on Parliamentary procedure, died on May IS, a few days after ho hail retired from the post of Clerk to the House of Commons. It was announced that it was the intention of the Government to have elevated him to the peerage. In the Houso of Commons, on May 15, Mr. Gladstone, pursuant to notice, moved a vote of .hanks to the Rieht Hon. Mr T. E. May, K.C.8., on lis retirement from the jllice of Clerk of the House if Commons. In saying a 'ew eloquent words in support of the motion, he renarked that his task had iceu rendered lighter by he well-deserved eulogy pronounced by the Speaker m the previous evening, and, enlarging on the services conferred by the late Clerk on all classes of members, and to the: caucu of Parliamentary institutions all over the world, ho bore testimony to the courage which Sir T. E. May had struggled with failing health ; and predicted that, as his heart would remain with the House, so his memory would be dear to it for a long scries of years. Sir'M. Hicks-Beach, in seconding the motion, also expressed the deep regret felt on that side of the House at the loss tho J louse was about to sustain. Mr. Kiiikes', as a former Chairman of Committees, bore testimony to the great services rendered to the llouso ; and Air. l'arnell also, on behalf of thu Irish members, expressed their tin3o of his unvarying kindness to them ; and the motion was agreed to nn» con. Sir Thomas Erskine May was born m ISIS, and began his career in the House in 1831, at a time of great political excitemcnt, and he himself has related in his " Constitutional History of England" that he was present in the House of Lords on the 7th of October until the memorable daylight division by which the second Reform Bill was rejected by a majority of 41. He soon obtained such clli.'ieucy in Parliamentary lore, and so extended an acquaintance with history, political economy, and statistics, that before lie had attained a mail's estate he was already known to members of Parliament as a valuable auxiliary in their researches. Among those who particularly recognised his early acquirements were men so different in character and position as Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Speaker Abercromby, Sir Robert Inglis, and Mr. .Joseph Hume. In ISB4 he completed his well-known " Treatise on the Law, Privileges, and Usage of Parliament," which became tho authoritative text-book tof the Imperial Parliament and every colonial Legislature. In 184!) Mr. Erskiue May published " Remarks and Suggestions with a View to Facilitate the Despatch of Public Business in Parliament," and from that time until the present scarcely a committee has been appointed in either House to consider public business or other matters of Parliamentary law or privilege in which he has not figured as a foremost witness. In lS;3(j ho was promoted to the table of the House as Clerk-Assistant, in which position ho rendered such able services to the Speaker and the House that in ISUO Her Majesty, at the recommendation of Lord Palmerston, conferred upon him the Companionship of the Bath. Ju 1-63 he published his "Constitutional History of England since tho Accession of George 111.," filling up the historical blank left by Hallam, resulting in a work of two volumes of immense historical value aud literary merit. This work was translated into French and German, and reprinted in America. In ISGG the author was promoted by Her Majesty to the rank of Knight Commander of the Bath, in the words of Earl Russell, " as a slight tribute on tho part of the Queen and her Ministers to his enlightened efforts to make our constitution, and especially tho rules of the House of Commons, better known and understood." In January, IS7I, he was appointed by the Queen to the ancient office of Clerk of the House of Commons. In tho same year laborious research and the strain of Parliamentary business brought on a scries of serious illnesses. At length, in IS7S, after four more years of interrupted study, there appeared " Democracy in Europe; a History," in two volumes, and henceforth the author' 3 name became definitely associated in literature with those of Hatsell, Hallam, and Do Tocqueville.