A Committee of Congress is, it is said, about to
report favour- ably on a bill admitting the heath of various departments to seats in the Houses of Congress, and giving them a right to speak on any subject connected with their own branch of the pubic service. The constitution only provides that " no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House," but does not interdict their sitting and speaking therein, though of course they could not vote. This new measure, if it be carried, will probably ultim Itely add a greater influence to Congress than any organic reform but one could do. For years discerning men h tve seen that the, debates of Congress have been so aimless and without influence on the country because they are not guided and corrected by full administrative knowledge. To complete the reform, however, the chief secretary at least should, in fact, be a member of the House, and removeable by its vote—in which case he would soon become virtually Premier—the people's chosen adviser of the President—who would sink, or rise, gradually into a constitutional monarch.
Previous page
