THE STEAM POWER OF PARLIAMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 925, 21 August 1869, Page 3

THE STEAM POWER OF PARLIAMENT.

- tK (Spebtator.) , " ' • It is A dull week * ti members, politicians, and. journalists, a very dull one ; there, is nothing, doing ; nothing has been said ; nobody has made a very conspicuous fool of himself j and perhaps our readers will tolerate a paper on a subject of purely speculative politics. We warn them beforehand that big as the subject is, it will certainly be of no importance for the present, and' may possibly never be of any, and invite them, if they dislike specula- . tion, to leave this article unread. Let us suppose for R-moment the electors o£ Great Britain to get a little tired of the slowness of ' their Legislature, to grow sick of its .way of compromising everything, to long for a little more speed, and ioroiblonees, and efficiency in their administration,- is it possible for them to satisfy that feeling without upsetting Parliamentary Government, or going through a Revolution, or breaking with the past, or doing anything that drawing-rooms would pronounce shocking? There are people, we ourselves are among the number, who think they perceive signs of suoh a feeling,-, who believe, or half believe, that if ever our Constitution is overthrown it will be from this side, from dislike to its cumbrousnees, rather than to any other quality or defect. There are not five men, for example, in the "United Kingdom, of all the majority who approve the Disestablishment of the) Irish Church, who would not be pleased to see Mr Gladstone's Bilt made law to-morrow, who do not at heart resent the loss of time involved in the chatter still to be endured, who would not put up with some trifling imperfections rather than see the roundness of the measure whittled away. In almost every other country that feeling has risen almost to a passion, till even in Congress bills are pisso.d without discussion by roll-wtll, and it might, under oertaia circumstances, owell in the same waj even here. Suppose it did, merely as a supposition tolerable when parochial business is at a stand-still, would that involve a Revolution ?

We hold that it would not ; that it is only, aa one party would say, by virtue of oertain defects of procedure, or as another party would say, by force of certain excoilenoios in its procedure, that the quality of absolutism latent in Parliamentary Government is concealed. {Supposing a contingency to arise in which the educating function of the Commons, Is now exercised, was clearly not required, or the impatienco of it which is perceptible among the educated classes to extend to the whole people, it would not be difficult to convert tho existing machinery into a very swift, very efficient, and wholly irresistible governing power. Irresistible, indeed, it is Already. No despot in the world dare do wbat the Government of Great Britain, backed by a majority in both Houses, dare do, more especially in finance, and that without thinking it is doing anything particular. It only remains to make its action swift, and, so to spook, "rotund," that is, uncompromising within the limits dosired by tho national will, and this would very easily he tweomplished. The Throne is no obstacle, for the Throne would probably approve, and would oertainly be unaffected by the change ; and the House of Lords, whioh might be affected, is not, when change is really required, a serious resitting power. That body "shunted off tho rails," or admitted to the hustings, or deprived of its sotnblancn of authority by any other method, little would be needed to make the Extoutivo one of tho very etrongost in tho world. No legislation would bo required, only a ohange is constitutional otiquottes, 1 and in the standing orders. A rale that the Ministry ahi.nld not be bound to re*ign unless visited with a distinct vote of want of confidence expressed ia so many words, would double or triplo at once their stability, their oourage, and their power. The oontitionoe of tho ooontry, it thoy poctftMed it, would then tnnko thorn really rulers, as able, whilo th«y possessed it, to pass moft. surcs as Napoleon is,— ablo, too, to watch over their measures until their results were in some degree complete, instead of being driven by a vote on some totally different •übjoet to hand thorn ovor to toon who in their hearts detest th« very .principle of govOTnmenl upon whioh they are baa«L The Ministry would be tnmod out only by general distrust, sot beoauso they had pro* poaod thii or that measure which their oppoaaots and a Oavti within ttaoir own rank* aid no* quite approve. In thn «v«nt of * frtMifc Atruurtmmt making itsotf unpopular ttmUt&V'a still popular Government, tho Cal&ut, though responsible, of coarse, for all Its sum, would remove or torso*

a hundred times', though the transaction has. beenxeUed^ndorl^hey^fiP-OTpoSi^?^ 011 °* ,*" 'resignation.l";!rnat..l,would secure great .strengt^^f.initjatjLyflo.th^^k^iave, while , power over details micht ba oataiued. .by two 'cnangeXblp^^ure, "vb^'gre^lndeed, in !effeo<v''bat' hot gVea^either" iri fl form^ win-oiple,>-*the abolition' of > discussion'-InaCom-mittee, and the,;addition of,a ojausejtosevery bill, , such., aa jj exists s in. ijbhe, Education A cb, enabling thV'departmdnt^to^pass any ■byelaw 1 " 'needful* ' r '.to' ? ' carry' 1 but 4 tne will of Parliament, 'on *odnHition^'o|V /aying iknoh>] laws'tfor- <a" loonthi upoa 1 the, table of .the House.: The first change ""would oompel Ministers^ t» ( make ■ their* J'measuresioonvplete, aotual' workibg laws- and, not as at 'present, mere suggestiobs, to be licked into shap9 hy disctiseion, mad would secure the perfe'ofcnesa of Acfca beyond any other conceivable change ; and'tne 'Becocd would prevent that everlasting dereference to Parliament of -matters already thought oat and determined, while the povver'ttf the nation to decide whether it would have such and 'such a measure or not " in* its entirety would 'still be complete. ' Every measure, in fact, would be discussed precisely as a' budget is now, and ■ accepted or rejected: just like an increase or diminutiott df 1^ taxation, when the Treasury, after <one debate, either praotically, or in some esses avowedly,; settles all details. To use the great Bill now before the country as an illustration. Under the system supposed, the measure would have been discussed 'exactly as at present; bub after the.division.ion the second .reading, Mr Gladstone would have modified the Maynooth clauses as unacceptable, and. therefore, tending to accelerate the vote dismissing him, the Bill would have been read a third time,, and. wonld then be law, as he designed it, and .not as it will be after ten or fifteen separate compromises. Individual genius would have as clear and as prominent a part to play in Great Britain as it has ia Prussia, while the saving of time would be almost incalculable. -

We trust we shall not be mistaken, and by our habitual readers think we shall cot be. Not or ly are we not proposing changes like these as ends to be sought immediately, but we doubt if any of them except the concession to each department of a povror to make byelawa, au.oh as is already granted to every railway company, would be, at present at all events, for the benefit of the nation. The excopted change would remedy a distinct defect in our system, which injures rather than increases the power of the House of Commons ; but. for the rest, the political education of tho country is scarcely fuffi-oi-nfcly Advanced. The long discussion on evt-ry reform which sickens politicians <s needful to educate the country, and ay id those spasms of " reaction " from which the Continent so frequently suffers, but from which the policy of Great Britain is usually free. It is, however, most benefid al to see clearly in what direction greater Me<un power, if urgently required, can b6 obtained; lor it ia at this point, if at any, that our eydtem will collapse. Already, if we are not mintaken, there is in this very House a disposition to vote rather than talk, to suppress bores by force, to insist on uu almost unprecedented speed of legislation, while the best administrators are stivto dn% the law in the hope of securing all the n-forui they can without the tedious and me >ray'«to prooews of legislation Even Air CtuUiere visibly avoids doing what, neverUu-ioa*. it is his clear duty to do, — putting his oJike right by such an alteration m its patent ;tn would require the formal endorsement of the two Houses. The great administrative reforms which wo must attempt; some day, and ought to attempt now, — for example, the rebuilding of the army, — are hardly possible, many will say hardly conceivable, unless PAriiamont will, by some sort of self.deuying resolution, leave the Ministry and its agent* to carry them out, settling principles, but abstaining rigorously from details, as is doae, for example, ia America, wher?, from tho very form of the Constitution, Congress can only will, leaving tho execution of that will to the head of the State. Tho system is owned there much too far, till it almost destroys responsible government, while the abtenca of the power of interpellation allown all maunor of *i uioj to grow up ; but the healthy prinoiple necu not bo pushed under our Parliamentary i-yrttom to any unhealthy excess, is not so pushed m the only department whioh retains a trace of the Amorioaa freedom, — the department of Eduo&tioD,

Acoordlng to tho Dunatan Times, tho dredges on tho Molysoux, between the Dunstan and Alexandra, are still doiug remarkably well, as much as L7O per man baring been realised by each of the owners of one of thorn for the v last week's work, olear of all expenses, and should the river oontiuu') to ronuun at its present level, there is every probability of their won doing better front prospoots obtauird. — Tho same journal reports that a narrow esoape from drowning ooourrcd on the 6th inafc, to Andrew "Williamson, ono of tho men employed on board the "Clyda" dredgo. It appears .ho was engaged in working tho spoon, with which the dirt ts brought frora tho bod of tho river to tho deck of the dredge, whoa the atop broksjand preoipitatr d him headlong into the water. Boing unable to a wim h« >auk bttlow the aurfaoo o( thn w>t«ir. and was carried wi£h tho current adouc \uO yards boforo ho was roaoued by sonio of tho men, who imnioliately on his iuinvreion jumped into the boat and put vIX to his resouo. When ovortakon ami plotted up, he was iosoiuibie, sari remained ho for *ume time, though •very swan* was resorted to to reatOM ooo»cioasn«ss. %iu^4