THE LOAFING M.P.

Otago Witness, Issue 2685, 30 August 1905, Page 71

THE LOAFING M.P.

; (M. A. P.) | — The ?few Member. ■ _ Mr Rufus Isaacs, the brilliant advoca+e, in a recent interesting maiden speech, nijdi the confession that the House of .ConyuoEc was something of a disappoint- > mem In him. He had bcun accusto.ncd to -see thiug; done in a businesslike v.i), iuA lie was rather surprised to iind hjv. in--businesslike the metkeds of the House of Commons were. This is the first exp»ri- . ■•enee of every young parliamentarian, tnvl the more he has been accustomed to busi- i nesslike methods outside the Home, tlis ."■greater is his surprise, the profounier Lis j shock when he enters that assembly. "• he ' "first sis; weeks of a young legislator's life ' . are often the most trying. He often asks himself when he looks back on th< amount , of time, trouble, and money he has s[u-" i v | . to get a place in the House of Comm <m ' whether he has not been a Icol for his troubel. He finds that instead of being m important personage there «"ith a possi bility of making a career, he is regaidcd as an item whose main function :n: n life is to wait about for hours c'omg nothing in order that at the end jf ibe time lc may give a silent and perhaps a not very twilling vote in favour of the ieulera of the party to which he belongs. j —In Exile.— - i I have often watched the .effect o! tins ' experience, especially in men who have come into tlie House with a reputation for great business achievement outside ; it is always the same. You find the poor man I possessed by .a spirit of oppressive melandholy and inevitable boredom ; oe i« hie one on whom there comes rise sharp and painful reaction of a great aj«d joyful excitement ; hs is almost like ,i Irs-t .'oirit ashe wanders through the corridors and down the terrace, and in through the dir.rl-e-Tooms ; steadily avoiding hoovo a!i } laces the chamber itself, where ti-e l.'ismezs of the nation and his duties are sujipo&ed specially to call him. If you speak t" Lim. he unbosoms himself quite fvaiiKi/. He seems, indsed, to long — poor e.nle !! — c or sympathy and friends, tiope and confidences ; and then he tells v ou how grieve J he is to find himsslf in the Houso of •!<. mmons at all, and how glad be woul-1 bs if lie could get back to the busy hum of hJs factory and to the bilent tranquility and the good hours of this home in the country. — Profound Pessini is n.- - ! My Lloyd George — who is now c:i old J parliamentarian — commenting on the speech . of Mr Rufus Isaacs, said that the veteran members got accustomed to the loafing c-f ' the House of Commons, to its .vant cf •business methods, to its futilities. Tt, 'became a habit to expect nothing but these things, and after a while they ceased either to interest or to bore. And that n lust ..what happens; and that is just i:ne cf th^ . things which, I think, arc the wl'irmF.tion of the present habitc ?nd methyls of ! the House of Commons. N^..ivilly a ' member of Parliament becomes an invete- ' rate and incurable loafer. Anything like steady work, except when he baa sees bi.i

' bit offe business on hand, be p . >incs aim «( impossible to him. Tnet'e is no Cui'M)\ i i tive, however crusted or bi^cuu, v. 1.0 hi, lin the end a greater .disbelief in the possi- ; J bility of doing anything quickly or rac'i- , cally in this world of slow change, -A < ' impalpable, but irresistible, oDi>tacle-. He ; j is accustomed to see every rational man | in the House of Commons agieed that a 1 certain reform is necessary in the interest of the people, and yet to see the measure i which embodies this reform blocked for 10, 15, 20 sessions in succe?si ni ly a small .and obstinate minority ; it may sometimes be even a minority of one. He sees party spirit rise up whenever a great measure is proposed, and wreck it by -.httr fuce of obstruction. He rr-hol«L» ppivciiul Ministeries and overwhelming majorities kept in complete check by handfuls of men ;" and, in short, he gets so accustomed to the creaking, urmieldly, cumbrous, immutable parliamentary machine that he j loses courage, hope, and even faith, and sinks into the pessimistic conviction that ' everything is for the worst, and will reJ main for the worst in the worst of all possible worlds ; unless, indee.l . he be nne ' of those stout and incurable (Joiscrvi-ti'os .who think all change bad, ,m] therefore j will welcome any and every me.; is winch makes change difficult. — The Barrister's Expedient. — i Intellectual apathy follows upon political apathy. One o c the things upon which I find every member of Parliament agreed is that it is quite impossible to do any work in the Houte of Commons. I re- . member the late Mr Parnell used sometimes to put this hand to his bewildered i head, and saj r that he could not sometimes understand even a simple amendment because of the distracting atmosphere of the House of Commons ; and that was, perhaps, one of the reasons why he used to absent himself in tha country for weeks, and avoid the House of Commons as though it were a place of pestilence. Banisters come into the House with tibc idea that they can fill up their odd boui's by reading up their briefs in the library ; for a short time you do see them over their brieis, but they cease Focn to try to do woik in this way ; they . adopt the expedient of finding another .barrister of tile opposite side who also is busy and anxious to be in his study and at his work, and the two blithely j leave tibe House every evening at halfi past 7 o'clock and never return to the House again unless on some night when there is a big party fight and a momentous division. ' — Work Not Possible.— ■ It is the &ame with members of other professions. I have known one or two men who have managed to write some of their books in the library ; fcjir Henry ' ; Seton-Karr, for instance, wrote a good ' part of a book on travel and sport in this ' way, hut L-c is an exceptional case. The j majority of men I know who make their j living by their pens have to postpone all j ! their work until they get back to their studies*. There are, of course, some news- ' paper men who do work in some of the ' rooms of the House. Justin M'Carthy j rsed, in olden days, to write a leader for ' the Daily News every night for years ; | I often saw Mr Leonard Courtney write ! his leader for The Times in a quiet room ' of the library ; I myself for more than 20 years wrote a parliamentary sketch in one ' of the committee roor:s of the House, ' keeping even a typewriter there. But the j ' journalist has no choice in these affairs ; ; be has to writ-e when and where he can. ! • Since I have ceased to write parlia- j j mentary sketches I have ceased to write ' a line in the House ; I do all my work at home. i — An Atmosphere ot Unrest. — ! It is, perhaps, difficult to explain to an ' outsider why it is that woik in t>he House of Commons is thus difficult ; but I will try ar.d make him understand. The first great cause is that time is so cut up there. You rarely know how long you will be free to attend to any work, j Divisions wait (like time and tide) for no ! man. Often the division comes in the j middle of your dinner ; often when you have cat down and begun to work. The j result is that you are haunted with the ! sense that you are liable to be interrupted ; and the sense of interruption is enough to make work difficult. But, secondly, I interruption from division is but one of many interruptions. There is always soxnebedy in the outer lobby who wants to see a member of Parliament ; it may be to wirepull about a bill, or to ask a situation, or perhaps to get a seat in the gallery. And, thirdly, all around the building there is ths ever-constant sense of an atmosphere of gossip, rumour, all the other things which belong to a school not of scandal, perhaps, but of personal views. Members get into the habit of asking each other the same question a dozen or a score of times each day. "Well, what's the news?" or "When will the dissolutiton come?" or some such conundrum j of this kind, the very putting of which h a weariness of the flesh. — In Other Countries. — If you want to realise how much a loafer the British member is, you have only to compare the appearance of our Legislature ac Westminster with that of any other assembly in the world. I know the legisi Latures of America, and I have often been in that of France. In America politicians have to take their politics very seriously; it is what I would regard as little better than a dog's life, especially if a man be a member of the House of Representatives. I used to be appalled when a friend of mine-, who was a membei of that body, told mo of his occupations, and what lie was expected to do. He was literally at the beck and call of every one of his constituents ; he had to be their guide, philosopher, friend, lawyer, supplicant, repre- j sentative, trustee. For one man he had to see whether a new patent could be got ' out z for another to, cet a place as a cadet '

at Wcstpoint ; for another to try and stop a rival from obtaining a postmastership ; and so on through a hundred different details of life v.ihich are done in other countries not by the poor politician, but by the solicitor, or the doctor, or some other paid professional man.

— No Loafing. —

The member of either the House of Representatives or of the Senate at Washington has his seat allotted to him. That seat he docs not often leave during a parliamentary debate. He uses it perhaps more as an official than I should like ; it i's there that he conducts his multifarious correspondence, and attends to his business., public and private. But he is there ; you don't find either the one chamber or the other of the Legislature empty throughout most of the day rs you do with vs — public opinion in America would not stand it. Look at the condition of the House just now ; you will see it at its worst. At 5 o'clock the terrace is literally crammed with visitors. It is a pretty sight with- all the beautiful women of London there, clad in the mo«t beautiful dresses. A garden party on a large scale could not be prettier, and there is nothing &o pretty as a garden party at this time of the year and in England, where the light colours of summer suit so well the blue eyes, the fair hair, and the beautiful complexions of -Englishwomen.

— Thi. Terrace. —

A stranger coming to such a sight, and seeing there thiee-fourths of the members of the House of Commons employed as cavaliers in attending to beautiful dames, would form a curious idea of our Legislature and of the seriousness with which Englishmen take the duty of governing that Empire of which they talk so much. An Irish member is credited with the suggestion that a band should play every afternoon. I don't see any reason why it should not. The other day there was a great crowd to see the pigmies ; every other day there is some celebrity or curiosity trotted out for the c.musement of th© ladies who congregate on this sacred spot. It is very magnificent, but it is not politics. I am afraid I must stick to my theme^ — that the House ol Commons is a House of Loafers. — T.P.