SALARIED M.P.'S.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 141, 7 August 1911, Page 6

SALARIED M.P.'S.

SOME QUAINT PRACTICES IN EARLIER TIMES. It may he said, of course, that to pay M.IVs would only be to revert to tho old order in this country, says a w riter in the “Daily (Rapine.“, That is. literally true, hut on examination it will hardly ho found to lend much support to the movement. Payment ot members in former times broke down because constituencies found there was an abundance of candidates prepared to represent them without fee. The honour of being a member of Parliament was thus established; an honour which stands by itself for tho fascination which it exercises upon tho minds of public-spirit-ed men. The first record of payment of members goes hack to the reign of Edward li. Wages were filed in 1323 at -Is a day for cadi knight of tlie shire and 2s for each citizen or burgess, to be paid by the constituencies. There was the rub. Of coarse, the electors began finding excuses for not being represented at Westminster at all. Some places even refused point-blank to send representatives. Other constituencies cut the wages down. Here and there members bargained that they would forego travelling expenses. Ipswich in 1472 got one member for os a week; another consented to do the work for 3s Id.

Tho salaries being stopped as soon as members left Westminster, a member anxious to be on good terms with his consttitueucy would arrange to make his visit to the legislature very brief indeed, so that by returning home he might save his employers’ money. Canterbury made a present to its member for being considerate in this wav.

Another of the anxious-to-please spent but four days at Westminster, ami was rewarded with a civic welcome on his return. This sort of thing, however, interfered with Parliamentary business, and Parliament by-and-by (in 1514) passed an Act forbidding desertion on tire part of its members. Andrew the poet, who sat for Hull, is supposed to have been the last member to have been paid (1673). Devizes and King’s Lynn were also among the latetst to be charged by their members.

On the authority of Pepys, wages were generally discontinued before 1063. As a footnote to the history of the wages system, it should be noted that several, constituencies paid “in kind.” Dunwich, for example, in 14G3 induced its representative to accept “a cade and half a barrel of herrings as ids fee.” Failing the carrying of the Bill in the new Parliament, here is an idea for agitators, of tiie question. Coal from Newcastle, beer from Burton, tobacco from Ireland, and the choice of oatcakes or whisky from Scotland, readily suggest themselves as a basis of a system which upon closer examination might be found not without some merit.

Coming to the modern history of the question, the talk began in 1870, when Mr. Peter Taylor got only 64 votes to support him in a proposal to introduce a Hill “to restore tiro ancient constitutional practice.” The Opposition numbered 211. In ISS3 Mr. Fenwick made a similar motion, and it was met with the same result, though the defeat was less overwhelming (135 to 192). A resolution approving of payment was carried in 1893 by a majority of 47, and in 1906 by 348 to HO. Mr. W. H. Lever, tire mover of the resolution on the latter occasion, embodied in it tlrat the salary of a member should be £3OO a year.