Hetieic of lieiiewg, 2/6/06. 



Leading Articles. 



489 



HOW TO REFORM PROCEDURE. 



Mr. Frederic Harrison's Drastic Scheme. 

 All old jest current in the seventies, that Mr. 

 Frederic Harrison lived in the hope of some day 

 seeing a guillotine set up in his back garden tor 

 shearing off the heads of the aristocrats, comes back 

 to the mind as we read his programme for the re- 

 form of parliamentan,- procedure in the April 

 A^i>ic/Ciii//t Century. 



HOW IHE HOUSE SHOTJLD BE ELECTED. 



Mr. Harrison begins at the beginning. His first 

 reform is a reform in the method by which the 

 House of Commons is elected. He says : — 



We all trust that, with the scandalous bonus gii-en to the 

 rich by the system ot plural voting, there will disappear 

 also the unjust and mischievous practice of prolonging a 

 genenal election over several weeks. .\s in other countries, 

 eilectious should be held throughout the four nations on 

 tlie same day. which ought to be made a Bank holiday. 

 I would also prohibit the use of motors and carnages 

 for men. unless actually occupied by their owner or his 

 agents. The lavish use of vehicles to carry electors to the 

 poll is a very squalid kind of bribery which ought to be 

 suppressed like " treating " and " hired vehicles." We need 

 not labour the payment of all Itoria fide election expenses 

 with the House and the Government we now have secured. 

 The antique paraphernalia of writs, returns, re-election on 

 taking office, "swearing-in," and other mummery, will have 

 to go. Nothing should prevent the Dissolution of Parlia- 

 ment by Royal Proclamation, and the holding ot a general 

 olectiori on one given day. at any convenient day at a 

 future and reasonable date. 



HOW THE HOUSE SHOULD BE EECONSTEUCTED. 



After the Members are elected, Mr. Harrison says 

 it is scandalous they should not have a House large 

 enough to seat them ; — 



The " Mother of Parliaments " is really the great-grand- 

 mother of parliaments in its old-fashioned furbelows. 

 First of all comes the huge absurdity of meeting in a 

 chamber which will not seat comfortably halt the mem- 

 bers, and into which only three-fourths of them can be 

 crushed at a pinch so as to hear worse than in the shilling 

 gallery at a theatre. 



He would do awav with the oblong chamber and 

 give even- Member a seat in an amphitheatre. 



HOW THE HOUSE SHOULD BE LED. 



Mr. Harrison gives C.-B. a friendly lead: — 



We all look to Sir Henry, for the first time at the bead 

 of a really business House of Commons, to put his foot 

 down on the vulgar scandal of te.a-p.^rtie8 on the terrace, 

 dinner-parties in the cellars, gabbling nonsense to stave off 

 a division, systematic pairine-. blocking ' by sheer 

 trickery, and majorities consisting of overfed, noisy young 

 "bloods." whipped up from balls and supper-rooms. 



HOW IT SHOULD BE DUTDED UP. 



The first thing to be done is to introduce the 

 Standing Crimmittee system: — 



.\t the opening of each session the House should nomi- 

 nate as many standing committees as there are separate 

 ministerial departments, say finance, foreign affairs, army, 

 navy, edncation. local government lor noasibly. agricul- 

 ture, post and railwaysi. law. home. Scotland. Ireland. 

 Colonies. India-that is, at least twelve or fourteen stand- 

 ing committees, each consisting of eleven or thirteen mem- 

 bers more or less. To one of such committees every Bill, 

 or motion when passed by the House, would be referred 

 for consideration. 



The twelve or thirteen committees should sit as com- 

 mittees on private Bills now sit. with power to call before 

 them and ex.iimine any Minister in either House, to hear 

 any MP who desired to address them, and to obtain in- 

 fontation from Government offices or elsewhere. On some 

 such plan as this every foreign parliament, every county 



conncil, every company, bank or public institution does 

 its work. 



HOW ITS HOURS SHOULD BE FIXED. 



Mr. Harrison is very severe upon our Private Bill 

 system of legislation: — 



The civilised world can offer no spectacle ot " how-uot-to- 

 do-it " more grotesque than the sight ot a committee-room 

 in the Lords sitting on a complicated Bill promoted by a 

 great railway or a corporation. If this putrescent scandal 

 ot Private Bill lesislation were done away, the rooms, 

 staff and machinery upstairs would be set free, and the 

 call on members' time and labour immense;ly reduced. 

 Committees — the permanent department committees — would 

 meet at ten a.m. for two or three hours' sitting, three- 

 fourths of the House being free from attendance altogether. 

 There would then be ample time for a sitting of the House 

 itself, of four or five hours— say. from two p.m. to seven 

 p.m. Abolish night sittings altoeether. excepting for 

 some urgent occasion tor one or at most two hours, but 

 always rising before midnight. That is how every busi- 

 ness cliambei- in civilised countries does its work. 



OTHER REFORMS. 



Mr. Harrison would reform " questions " : — 



Ui.lil 'questions" can be subjected to some responsible 

 control, and carry the right to press the Minister who 

 answers, they had better be got out of the way altogether. 

 The House— once relieved of the weary work of passing, 

 in unwieldy meetings of a desultory kind, interminable 

 strings of technical clauses, relieved of the idle worry of 

 trumpery "questions," the moving for "returns." nomina- 

 tion of commissions, etc.. all which purely departmental 

 business would go to the proper departmental committee, 

 not to the full House— would get rid of sources of delay, 

 trifling and solicitation. A time limit of twenty minutes 

 for ordinary speeches would do more to give life to Par- 

 liament and to reduce desultory habits than any other 

 single reform. 



It is to be feared that Mr. Harrison will get his 

 guillotine sooner than he will be able to carry these 



drastic reforms. 



ME. BURT'S SUGGESTIONS. 



In marked contrast to Mr. Harrison's sweeping 

 proposals, Mr. Thomas Burt, in the same magazine, 

 puts forward a modest programme with characteris- 

 tic diffidence. He says: — 



Almost to a man the Labour members would favour 

 earlier sittings, commencing, say. at 10.30 or 11 a.m., and 

 ending at 8 or 9 p.m. That. I believe, would meet with 

 the approval of a, majority of the House of Commons as 

 at present constituted. 



He thinks there is no case for abolishing the 

 Grand Committees. The case is strong for further 

 developing and perfecting the system. He also puts 

 in a plea for Home Rule. 



PROBLEMS BEFORE THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 



The Coritcmporarv Rcvinv opens with a lengthy 

 paper by Mr. J- A. Spender, on " The New Govern- 

 ment and its Problems," from which I make a few 

 extracts : — 



Some things the Liberal Party must do or iierish in the 

 .attempt. It must abolish te.?ts for teachers and establish 

 pubjic control over the schools; it must take the sting of 

 -ilaverv out of the Chinese ordinance; it must amend 

 Trade' Union law; it must reduce expenditure, or, at least, 

 reduce taxation. It is under the clearest pledges in all 

 these matters. . . . 



With good luck Mr. Spender thinks the Govern- 

 ment may last for five Sessions, about two of which 

 are mortgaged to various measures dealing with the 

 subjects mentioned above. 



