[All Rights Reserved.] THE SILENT PARLIAMENT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue VI, 9 February 1901, Page 234

[All Rights Reserved.] THE SILENT PARLIAMENT.

By

ROBERT BARR.

Author of “ The Mutable Many,” Etc.

SYNOPSIS OF INSTALMENTS I. to IV —The reader is introduced to a travelling lecturer, Richard Stanford, who is sitting on the steps of his van smoking. He is a man about twenty live years of age, with firm mouth and stubborn jaw. To him comes a horseman—the son of the owner of the surrounding land—who peremptorily orders him to move on, which after a friendly conversation, he does. He stops again in a quiet hamlet, and lectures to the villagers. A beautiful lady, reclining in a boat on the edge of a lake, is assailed by a rough tramp who, in pursuit of money, is about to carry' out his threats of violence, when Stanford is drawn to the spot by the lady’s cries for help, and sends the tramp otf. An interesting conversation ensues, which is, however, terminated by the tramp who had, unperceived, returned, and deals Stanford a blow* which sends him into the water. He is rescued by some of Mrs Greenhow's men. and carried to the Hail, where the doctor attends him. On regaining consciousness he finds the lady of the adventure by his side. She and her father and brother frequently discuss their strange visitor, who as frequently finds a champion in Mrs Greenhow. CHAPTER VI (Continued).

“Bless me!” said Mrs Greenhow, “I thought the opinion of all you socialists was that the voice of the people was the voice of God. “I don’t know that I am a socialist; in fact, I don’t know what I am. I merely have this fixed idea in my head, about earth, air and water; and I would always prevent the people from interfering with a law of nature.”

‘"So you intend to be a despot, Mr Stanford. This is tremendously interesting. May I ask how you propose to set about it?”

“Well, in the first place I intend to lu-cmne Prime Minister of England.” “Oh! And is that only a first step?” "Only a first step. Mrs Greenhow. The people of England, in electing me to that honourable position, will imagine they are electing a friend, and in that they will be entirely right; but if they think they are electing a man who will allow them to do as they please, they will find themselves entirely wrong.

“But if you do not allow them to do as they please, they will speedily retaliate by turning you out of your position. You cannot hold the position of Prime Minister of England without the consent of the governed, vou know.”

“Quite so! but Parliament lasts for seven years, and in that seven years I can acomplish all I desire to do; after that some one else will carry on the work, which, once begun, will never be allowed to go backward. I intend to have a cast-iron mechanical majority, that will vote exactly as I tell them to vote, and when I am Prime Minister of England I shall remain so for the seven years, during ■which time the revolution will become accomplished.” “What do you mean by a mechanical majority?” “A majority that is paid by me, and will do as I tell them, just as if they were my clerks, and I the head of a big firm in the City. I shall have a majority in Parliament of young men who will do nothing but vote; they will make no speeches. I will make no speech myself, but merely proclaim what I am going to have done and then vote it through.” "But ■what about the House of Lords, Mr Stanford?”

“Oh. I will put in my majority there too; there will be no trouble with the House of Lords. The moment I am Premier I will hire my young men and make Lords of them at once, until the present majority is swamped, and I can carry through what measures I desire.”

“Good gracious, Mr Stanford, what a terrible man you are; if I had known all this when you were down under the water I might have hesitated about pulling you out again. But this mechanical majority of yours, how do you intend to get it together?” “Just as any City man would get together the clerks necessary for his business. I intend to hire them.” "But wouldn’t that be against the law? Wouldn’t it be bribery or something?” “No, there would be no bribery about it. I merely hire and pay the men for doing a certain thing for me. I shall put them up in constituencies, and get them elected, if possible. At the first general election we may get only a few in; at the next election. w e shall have more, and at the third we will probably have a majority, but if not we will wait patiently, and not

throw our hands up until we do.” “And do you intend to pay your members of Parliament fcr ‘heir services?’ “Certainly.” “And from what class do you propose to draw them?” “From the clerks that I have so often referred to. I expect to engage reliable, silent, obedient, members of Parliament for a salary* on an average, of thirty shillings a week. I expect to get my House of Lords for a pound a week, because they will not be ealled upon so often as my members of the House of Commons.” "How do you propose to get the money to pay these silent members of Parliament, Mr Stanford?” “Oh. I intend to float a company called the Reformation of England Company. Limited, with a capital of one hundred thousand pounds. I shall try, first, to get rich men interested in the company, but if I fail in that, as the chances are that I shall. I shall try to float the stock in one pound shares all over the country.” “But I don’t see how your company is going to pay a dividend. What inducement are you going to offer the people to go in?” “Well, I have thought that, if I could get the rich men interested, they would come in for the good of the eause; but if I am forced to go to the poorer classes for the money, then I shall make the capital a charge on the future resources of the country. The country can very well afford to pay the money used for its own reformation.” “No, the country ought not to object to such a charge, but then, you know, the country is said to be ungrateful. You would never be content until you made England a republic, Mr. Stanford.” “No, I think I am satisfied with the state of things as they are, though the governing power ought to be satisfied on thirty shillings a week. We greatly over-pay our rulers.” "Fancy a king on thirty shillings a week.” said Mrs. Greenhow. - “Oh, I don’t mean to say that I would bring royalty down to the thirty shillings a week basis; I might personally be willing to allow five or six pounds a week, but that would

be for the country to decide; it would be very wealthy, and might eare to

pay well for being governed well.” "Have you made an estimate, Mr. Stanford, of how long your hundred thousand pounds would last you? You would need about one thousand persons in your employ, for your House of Commons, and your House of Lords, too. If you paid them a pound a week there would be used fifty-two thousand pounds a year; you see your capital would not last you two years, and great reforms are not brought

about iu that time.” "1 have figured it all out. You see, I would not need the House of Lords for some time, and that would be a great saving which would extend the capital over four years; besides, I am not sure but I could make my House of Lords self-supporting. If a certain number of men who could support themselves, signed my measure, I would make Lords of them without a salary; but the making of a House of Lords might not be at all necessary. I should wait, before creating it, to have my first bill thrown out by them, when I would tell them plainly that if they did not pass that bill when next' it was sent up from the House of Commons, I should at once create the number of Lords to give the majority I wanted. I think by that time I should be well enough known in England to have my measures passed without great opposition.”

“I see,” said Mrs. Greenhow. “Then your Reformation Company, Limited, would not go bankrupt for four or five years at least; and what would the lines of your Land Nationalisation Bill be?” “Oh, simply that all occupiers of land would pay rent to the Government.” “Well, Mr. Stanford, this is more interesting than any novel I ever read in my life, but I would like you to come down a little more to details. Take, for instance, my father’s land. What would you do with it? and what would he do without it? If all private ownership in the land were abolished he would have to give it up.” "Oh, no, he would pay a rent for it, Mrs. Greenhow, which I imagine would be only slightly in excess of the taxes he pays on it now, but, of course, he would not draw the tremendous revenues which he does now from it. I don’t suppose the change would affect our landed gentry; those whose incomes were wholly drawn from the land might have to turn to and work, but that would only be what thousands of their countrymen have been doing all their lives; still, I am not sure but what we would consider the ease of some of these, and perhaps guarantee them a livelihood. England under this new rule would rapidly become one of the richest countries in the world. Its revenues would be something enormous, even charging but a slight rental for an estate such as this. It could afford to deal generously with those it dispossessed, but that should not be considered as a right: in fact, it should be the other way: the landowners who have derived their revenues from the land should be compelled to disgorge. but the country will be in a condition to look on this with a generous eye. I am confident that when the time eomes we will guarantee a certain income to those who lose heavily by the transfer.” “If my father had to work for his living.” said Mrs Greenhow, “what would you suggest as the best way of earning it?” “From what I saw of your father on the Bench.” said Stanford, “I imagine we could afford to give him a good salary as a magistrate.”

F “He would have w give up the fanns, of course?” • 5 “Certainly. The men who wauld have the first claim.ton the farms would be the men who till them.” “And this Hall? suppose you would take it away from him?” “Oh, no! You evidently do not understand our principles yet, Mrs Greenhow. The Hall, being built by the hand of man, belongs to the descendants of those who built it. If your father were unable to pay the rent for the Hall and we were compelled to let it to someone else, we should compensate him for all that he actually owns.” “That would be very generous,” said Mrs Greenhow, sarcastically. “Not generous, but just,” replied the earnest young man. “We intend to be just first and afterwards, if we can afford it, generous.” “And when do you expect to get this Parliament of clerks together?” “Oh, it may take years, or it may never come in my lifetime at all. The reason I go through the country in my van. lecturing, is not to convince people, but to find out as nearly as I can how public opinion stands. We have had these vans for years in different parts of the country, and I want to discover what effect they have had upon the minds of the people. This is why I ask everyone to sign a document that I carry with me, and I have the idea that these thihjgs will come about much sooner than the people expect.” “And when you are convinced the majority of the people are with you you will float your Reformation of England scheme?” “Yes, if not a little before I am convinced.” Mrs Greenhow mused for some moments on the things which she had heard, then she looked up and said: “It seems to me the weak part of your scheme is the capital. I don’t believe you will succeed in getting it together. Are there many rich people who believe in Land Nationalisation?” “Oh, yes; very many.” “Well, I don’t know much about public companies, but it seems to me this one should be absolutely at your own disposal.” “I intend it shall be so.” “You will find it most difficult. There will be a Board of Directors, who will make all sorts of provisos about the money; but it seems to me success will depend upon your absolute control. It also seems to me that your chance of getting the money is to convince some very rich person that you are right, and if that person has confidence in you the money should be placed unrestrictedly in your hands. Otherwise you will be hampered in every way.” “There is a good deal in that,” said Stanford.

“There is everything in it. You have no experience in the forming of companies. You want a free hand, and that is just what you will not get. You would have to hold stockholders’ meetings and file reports of them somewhere, and the whole thing would be perfectly ludicrous.” Stanford looked up at her anxiously before he said: “Yes. I see that is the weak part of my scheme, but there is no way of getting round it; it must be done.” • “But it can’t be done, not on the company basis. You will have to find your rich person.” “How am I to find such a person?” he asked, with knitted brows. “Anyone who will trust me with a hundred thousand pounds. I might perhaps get a hundred pounds, but when it eomes to the thousands, then a man draws up his purse strings tight.” “I don’t believe you can find a man who would trust you with a hundred thousand pounds. There isn't a man in England who would, I am sure, advance you money for such a scheme.”

“Then,” said Stanford, “what would you advise me to do?”

• I would advise you to find a rich Xud here she is* said the . W j folding out her hand. “I will lad' - »n lend you one hundred -. i : t t l Tnd W- StanWdCHAPfrSi VII. ■ rhe voung man looked at Mrs Greenhow in amazement. In spite of The fact that it was his business to disseminate ideas among the people, he was himself rather slow at com- -•» ■" * h ' nW ">s” She replied rather gaily, “I mean to be the Reformation o* England Company, Limited, myself. „ ••But I can give you no guarantee, he said dolefully. -I knew vou were a poor company promoter,” she replied. “You should leave all objections to the capitahst, and confine yourself to answering them: that will give you quite enough °The voung man’s eyes were not upon her but seemed to be gazing into distant futurity. This somewhat piqued the ladv, who thought he ought to have thanked her warmly instead of acting as though she were not there. •If vou paid the money into the bank, say five hundred pounds at a time.” said the young man, meditativelv, more to himself than to the ladv" “I could give you vouchers that would show you accurately to what use I was putting the cash.” ‘•■Nonsense!” cried Mrs Greenhow. • X woman trusts altogether, or not

at all. If vou want to cheat me you nave an excellent opportunity; I shall not prosecute you. I cannot bother looking over vouchers.” Something in the aggrieved tone drew the young man’s eyes from scanning the future to her face. I am glad,” he at length said, “that vou believe in my project.” “I don’t believe in it in the least,” she cried. “Then why do you offer to furnish the money?” “Oh, for various reasons. As you know, I have given away a good deal of money in a manner which you think is' not at all to my credit. I think myself that it has done very little good. What I like about your scheme is, that it is going to give employment to a number of deserving young men at thirty shillings, and one pound a week. They will earn the money, and therefore, will have a right to it; even you will admit that, so long as they do not invest their savings in land, which, I think, there is little chance of their doing on thirty shillings a week.” “If you do not believe in the justice of our crusade, I shall not take the money.” “What difference does that make?” she cried impatiently, “you have belief enough for a dozen. I shall know that the money is distributed among a number of deservipg young men, who are earning it. That will be satisfaction enough for me. If your crusade is successful, the world may be the better for it. We shall see. But for a man who believes as you do, to refuse money, from whatever source it comes, seems to me very futile; in fact, you make me doubt the sincerity of your mission, by your refusal. A real reformer takes whatever he can get, so long as it puts forward his cause.” "Yes,” said Stanford, “I was wrong to speak of refusing, but I was thinking more of you than of the cause, for the moment. I should not like you to lose your money, you know.”

(To be Continued.)