The Ten Commandments of Empire. 



635 



^HE great need of the country 

 to-day is a real recognition by 

 all political parties, as well as 

 ^ by the man in the street, that 

 there are a number of questions 

 which are, or at any rate ought to be, 

 outside any party influence or earmark. 

 They are those vital to the nation as a 

 whole, without which the majority of 

 the people would run a risk at least of 

 suffering or being less well off than at 

 present. To allow such national mat- 

 ters to be the play of Parliamentary 

 tacticians is not, nor can it ever be, to 

 the advantage of the nation. Matters 

 of great and lasting importance to the 

 future weal or woe of the Empire are 

 now made the subject of barter in order 

 to prolong the tenure of office by one 

 or other party, frequently elected for 

 reasons quite other than those bartered 

 • away. But while these questions may 

 not seem of real importance to a party 

 whip, whose duty under present con- 

 ditions is always to secure for his 

 party the maximum number of votes 

 on division, they may well mean life or 

 death to the nation. Surely the time 

 has come when we can insist that such 

 questions shall be recognised as being 

 outside of party, and their achieve- 

 ment and conduct the result of joint 

 and universal endeavour. And this not 

 only by political parties, but by the 

 leading men of the nation. Auto- 

 matically the Navy has passed out of 

 party politics, because there is no 

 blinking the fact that without a 

 supreme Navy there would be no chance 

 even of discussing universal disarma- 

 ment in the House of Commons ! We 

 do not believe that any Government 

 that might take over the reins, whether 

 ultra-Conservative or ultra-Radical, can 



venture, or would really desire, 

 seriously to alter the British Navy. 

 Foreign affairs have incidentally 

 ceased to be of party interest, although 

 it would perhaps be a bold man who 



Daily Hcralil] [London. 



The touching faith of John Bull, Idolater, who is shown 



prostrate before his chief Fetish, Parliament, assisted in 



his devotions by its High Priest, the Lawyer. 



would say that they are conducted on 

 a national basis. They have been 

 divorced of party incidentally because 

 so very few know anything about 

 them. 



But there are many other national 

 issues which are still not sufficiently freed 

 from the trammels and risks of party 

 machinery. There has been no time at 

 which the Government at Westminster 

 has so nearly resembled a machine, 

 and not a thinking and reasoning mass 

 of representatives of the people. The 

 members as a whole have no more 

 intelligent interest or active participa- 

 tion in the legislation drawn up and 

 carried by the Government of the day 

 than the sausage machine has which, 

 receiving the debris of animal matter, 

 produces sleek and well-covered 

 sausages. With the mental or moral 

 attitude of members to such an arrange- 

 ment we have nothing to say here, but 



