Review of Revietri^, SO/Wh' 



Leading Articles in the Reviews, 



"REFORM THE HOUSE OF COMMONS." 



Mr. Frederic Harrison's Scheme. 



I asked a Labour member last month how he liked 

 the House of Commons. " I am dog-sick of the 

 speechifying," he replied. He had then only been 

 in the House two days ! Such men will turn with a 

 keen interest to the article in which Mr. Frederic 

 Harrison explains to the readers of the Fos/tivtst 

 Review for March how he would reform the House 

 cf Commons. 



His programme is certainly very thorough. 



If his scheme were adopted the following would 

 lie the rules and procedure of the House of Com- 

 mons : — 



There would be four sessions of eight weeks each 

 every year. The summer recess would be ten weeks, 

 and there would be three others of three weeks each 

 in early spring, autumn and winter. The House 

 would sit at two and rise at seven. Committees 

 would meet at ten. 



There would be a time limit of fifteen minutes for 

 speeches, which could be extended by a three-fourths 

 vote of the House. 



The closure by compartments would be abolished, 

 and the closure only allowed when the Speaker's as- 

 sent had been confirmed by a two-thirds majority. 



The practice of blocking should be abolished. 



All the business of the House should be transacted 

 by small Committees. 



Mr. Harrison proceeds: — 



The scheme I now offer for consideration is this: In 

 each session some twelve Special Committees, corresponding 

 to the Principal Offices — say. France. Foreign Policy, 

 Army. Navy. Education. Trade, Law. Local Government-. 

 Scotland. Ireland, India. Colonies. Each Special Committee 

 to consist of some thirteen or fifteen members, together 

 amounting to abont one quarter of the whole House, The 

 selection to he made, not by the Government or the 

 majority, but by a carefully-devised system of proportional 

 representation, so as to give to each section of the House 

 the exact nuni>)er of members to which the size of their 

 own group entitles tliem. 



If the Committees collectively numbered 165 members, a 

 party amounting to two-thirds of the House could elect 

 110; a party amounting to one quarter of the House 

 could elect 41; a party amounting to one-tenth of the 

 House could elect 16. It would be a first step to office to 

 have served on such Committee. Each Committee should 

 elect its own chairman, and have nower to sit at any 

 hour on any da.v even if it chose during a recess, with the 

 right to summon and examine any Minister, in or out of 

 the Cabinet. Peer or Commoner, and with power to sit in 

 secret with an oath of secrecy. The members of the Com- 

 mittees for Foreign Policy and the two Services might 

 even be sworn in as Privy Councillors, owning the same 

 responsibilities. 



To one of these twelve Committees every Bill, resolution, 

 or scheme laid before the House and referred for con- 

 sideration should be submitted, whether brought in by the 

 Government or by a private member. It would then be 

 considered clause by clause, as private Bills now are. 

 finally embodied in a Report, with one or more dissentient 

 Heports: and. when printed and circulated in due course, 

 submitted to the whole House for one decisive vote. This 

 is the course of business followed by practical Councils 

 and by Foreign Parliaments. It is the only way in which 

 full consideration and due expedition can be securei in 



any legislative body. By means of it the House of Com- 

 mons in sittings of sis hours, during 165 days in the year 

 lomitting Saturdays and Suudaysi. woulu do infinitely mure 

 work tiian it is accustomed to scramble through in brolien 

 sittings of eiglit or nine iiours. crowded into six or seven 

 early months down to Septemtier. 



There remain other reiorms which would need legisla- 

 tion, and need not now be considered — Redistribution, no 

 plural voting, registration, electoral expenses, elections to 

 be held throughout the iiingdom on the same day. to be 

 announced by telegraph by Royal proclamation; and aboli- 

 tion of the whole obsolete mummery of writs, re-election 

 on accepting ofQce. official uniforms, "swearing-in,' Ser- 

 geaut-at-Arms, grilled ladies' gallery, tea on the terrace 

 dinner parties in the cellars, and the whole tomfoolery 

 of mediaeval ceremony and modern smart amusements. 

 Tlie legislation and government of this Empire ought to 

 be treated as seriously as if it were at least a railwaj- 

 or the Bank of England, and not a Lord Mayer's Guildhall 

 fuuction or a Society lady's At Home. 



MR. MASSIXGHAM'S PLAN. 



The revival of Parliament engages Mr. Massing- 

 ham's eager pen in the Contemporary Revieu.-. He- 

 rejoices that the present majority is made up of 

 different stuff from the young bloods who filled the 

 Parliament of 1900.. He says: — 



" Gone." as a Parliamentary wit has it, " are t!ie bores 

 the bounders, and the blockers." on whom the late Prime- 

 Minister was wont to call in his frequent day of tronble. 

 The manual workmen alone contri'bute fifty memliers to 

 the new Parliament — men accustomed to manage large- 

 bodies of their fellows, to sway Trade Union Congresses 

 tD run co-operative organisations. The great municipalities 

 have sent the flower of their statesmen: never in modern.- 

 times has there assembled at Westminster so much am- 

 bitious talent or so full a representation of the active- 

 intelligence of the country. These men will speedily re- 

 volt from the meaningless side of Parliamentary' life, the 

 tramping through the lobbies, the dawdling of terrace 

 and tea-room. They will want to have a reasonable share 

 both in tlie private aetivities of the House and in thee 

 moulding of Ministerial measures. 



SUGGESTED CHANGES IX PROCEDURE. 



Of consequent changes in procedure, Mr. Massing 

 ham suggests several. He advocates the extension 

 of Grand Committees to deal with all Bills, conten 

 tious or non-contentious, as well as with all estimates, 

 and the reduction of their quorum. In considering; 

 the estimates he would attach a committee to each 

 department to make the first examination of its plans 

 and figures, or a committee of business to select and 

 arrange the subjects of debate and, perhaps, assign 

 a time-table. 



Passing to consider the general time-table of tl- 

 House, Mr. Massingham suggests that each sitting- 

 should t)egin at one, and that the present interval 

 for dinner should be abolished. The rule that Bill?^ 

 must either be compressed into a single session or lost 

 is regarded by him as contrarv to much modern Par- 

 liamentary usage. He anticipates that the House 

 will incline to beginning the session in Octol^er, with 

 a brief Christmas adjournment, and closing it in 

 July rather than in August. Before these change? 

 come into vogue, he suggests the possibility of the 

 Government either consulting the best minds in tiie 

 House of Commons, or allowing the new member;-; 

 a peiio(T of preparation and experience. 



