NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14345, 15 April 1910, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

ENGLAND'S FIRST SINGLE CHAMBER.

SOME amusing and timely notes on England's first single-chamber experiment, are contributed to the Fortnightly by Mr. G. M. Godden. He reminds us that in 1649 the House of Commons light-heartedly decided, according to an entry in its journal, "That the House of Peers in Parliament is useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished." Abolished it was by 44 votes against 29, and the Commons, thus relieved of all check upon their energies, set themselves down to show what they could do by themselves. The result is instructive reading for those who would follow in their footsteps. "England was now a 'Free Commonwealth' governed 'without any King or House of Lords.' Certainly nothing less than an Act of Parliament was necessary to proclaim a 'freedom,' which had, in four months, achieved the destruction of the principle of trial by jury; the imprisonment, on order of the House, of London's chief magistrate; the arbitrary demand from the city of £27,400; the uncompensated sale of Church property; the creation of a fresh offence in treason ,- and the suppression of the liberty of the press. This was the four months' record of an uncontrolled House of Commons; a House, moreover, so little dominated, as yet, by Cromwell, that it could pass a resolution in the teeth of his opposition." In four years, the writer points out, the unhampered Commons had destroyed English justice, annulling the Habeas Corpushud suppressed the liberty of the press; had coerced the freedom of individuals had failed to provide a navy capable of protecting either our shores at home or our commerce abroad; had witnessed the indelible disgrace of an enemy's fleet commanding the Channel, and Had produced the wildest examples of fanatical legislation. Fortunately, there was a man with common sense at hand, and the courage to exercise it. Cromwell himself came to the rescue. Striding up and down the House, he first told the members home truths concerning themselves in language which he admitted was "not Parliamentary/' and then, "I will put an end to your prating,", he cried. , "You are

no Parliament. .■ I say you.are no Parliament. I will put an end to your sitting." The entrance into the House of a squad of troopers, the i removal of . the Speaker, the scornful carrying away Of that "bauble" the' maceand there was an end to the national experiment in' SingleChamber Government. .