TOPICS OF THE DAY.
RACE FOR GOOD OPPOSITION SEATS.
PascricAux the members of the Tory party busy themselves in showing that which they deny in words—that Sir Robert Peel is the most important man in Parliament. A little while ago, they were trying to prove that he was a shelved man ; that he ought to retire from active political life ; and that in point of fact he did intend to do so. Their pertinacity in that process of proof betrayed the latent feeling that no amount of asseveration would suffice to convince the public of a fact so improbable. Now, it is confessed that Peel is to be, if possible, more assiduous in attend- ance than ever ; and his Tory antagonists recur to the question that agitated them in the last interval of the Parliamentary ses- sion—where is he to take his seat? The Standard began with the declaration that, indecent as it was, Sir Robert Peel must oc- cupy his usual seat as if he were head of the Opposition, at the head of the bench on the Speaker's left hand. "The etiquette of the House, sanctioned by long usage, it appears, assigns the front bench on the Speaker's right (thence called the Treasury bench) to the PrivyCouncillors engaged in the service of the Crown, and the front bench on the Speaker's left to the Privy Councillors not in the service of the Crown. As the latter class of Privy Councillors usually formed the head of the Opposition party, the front bench on the Speaker's left thus came to be regarded as the proper place of the Opposition leader and his more confidential adherents. "This arrangement has been hitherto sufficiently convenient; placing the heads of the two parties into which the House of Commons is usually divided, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Speaker, E0 as always easily to catch his eye,' and directly in front of each other. "A new case, however, and one which must have been wholly unforeseen when the etiquette was established, has arisen. We have seen a Ministry go out of office without any party to follow it; and this Ministry has carried in its small number all the Commoners of the Privy Council who are not supporters of the Ministry succeeding it. Thus the Opposition leader's seat is left open to those who are much less identified with the real Opposition than with the Ministers. * • * "During the next session, we give notice, the seat of Opposition leader will not be occupied by the leader of the Opposition, but by an Ultra-Ministerialist."
A correspondent of the Standard, however, disputes the law to which the journalist submits : "Ohm," who has had a fifty-years " experience " in the House of Commons—in what capacity he does not disclose—admits that the etiquette of the House leaves the front bench on the Speaker's right hand to Privy Councillors, and as the Privy Councillors who are Ministers usually suffice to fill it, it has come to be considered "the Treasury bench " : but Privy Councillors who are not Ministers have also occupied a seat there, as Mr. Pulteney did after he left office. On the other hand, there is no rule or established custom for conceding the front left-hand bench to Privy Councillors ; several Members not in the Privy Council have sat there—as Fox, Grey, Erskine, Tierney, and others, before their summons to the Privy Council; Whitbread, Romilly, Mackintosh, Hunt, O'Connell, and others, Who never were Privy Councillors. The proper place for Ex- Ministers who do not profess to be in absolute Opposition, accord- ing to the precedent of the Addington Ministry, is the front seat below the gangway. So Bays " Olim " ; and he finishes with a hint— "At all events, I think I may safely assert that Lord George Bentinck or any Other Member, Privy Councillor or not, may sit, if he pleases, on what is called the Opposition bench, and can assure himself that seat by the usual precaution of being in his place at prayers—the only mode by which, according to the general rules of the House, any place can be secured; and these rules extend to every part of the House except only the Treasury Bench, and a seat in which a Mem- ber has been thanked [which secures his right to it for that Parliament]. The result of all is, that the country would not endure any indecent struggle for seats. The Opposition, whichever party may be fairly entitled to that designation, ought to and must have the Opposition seats."
It would not be matter for surprise if the "man of stable mind" were to take this hint. If so, the House of Commons will be like the pit of the Opera, where a crowding at the door ends in a rush for the seat ; the Chaplain's prayers being not more audible in the shifting of the seat-hunters hopeful of bettering their places, than the overture. "The fancy" will lay bets on "the favourite," as in a steeple-chase; the run along the lobby will be watched with eager interest ; the fate of "the ruck," jammed up at the door of the House, will yield to the intense anxiety as the favourite and one or two others break away,—the grand struggle perhaps lying be- tween Lord George and Mr. Ferrand, Colonel Sibthorp and Mr. Smith O'Brien. It would be curious if the place of leader of the Opposition were to be the prize of Sibthorp or Ferrand. Indeed, the opening of the seats is by no means sure to result in showing forth Lord George as leader of the Opposition : even Members from the Ministerial side might take their chance of a run for the seat, where they would look as if they wereyrivy Councillors; and in the betting on 7...../rd George or Mr. Grande), Berkeley, Colonel Sibthorp or Mr. William Brown, odds would lie in favour of the Liberal. It is said that "the country" will not endure a struggle for seats : in the House of Commons, "the country" is often lugged in by the head and shoulders, but we never observed that it had any power there ; and we do not see how the nation could be called in to perform the office of a policeman. No; begin the tumult, and it must take its course. If there is nothing to exclude Lord George from the top seat on the left hand, there is nothing to exclude Mr. Borthwick, Mr. Wakley, or Mr. Dillon Browne. Would the change be for the better in the estimation of the Standard and " Olim "? Surely matters might be worse as well as better : " Forsan et heec, Ohm, meminisse juvabit."
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