TOPICS OF THE DAY.
SYSTEMATIC HINDERANCE OF PUBLIC BUSINESS. Jr is to be hoped that anything like the deplorable exhibition performed by Lord John Russell on Monday, in "the massacre of the innocents," was witnessed on that occasion positively for the last time. If the Committee on Public Business now sitting, can effect any decided change for the better in the conduct of Parliamentary duties, then it may be possible to avoid the annual process of throwing overboard in the lump bills on which so much work has been wasted.
Regarding this performance for the benefit of Lord John as probably the last, we have no objection to its being a fine speci- men of its kind—a bonne bouche in the way of massacre. The Minister might on that score have been more explicit than he was ; for he endeavoured to veil the slaughter under a decent re- serve. He admitted a few cases of murder, but skilfully overlaid them with a few cases of salvation ; despatching a host of help- less measures in a vague word or two about their not being so important. We regret the clearance the less, since any effectual perform- ance of the duties intrusted to the Select Committee will enable the Minister who shall be leader of the House of Commons next session to point to much better substitutes for the "innocents "- appropriate title 1—whose loss we now mourn. The two main causes that lead to this abandonment of bills by Ministers, with all the official facilities for pushing measures, lie so obvious on the surface, that the mere appointment of a Committee to inves- tigate implies an authoritative recognition of those two causes, and, of course, an attempt at remedy. The causes are, want of preparation on the part of those specially intrusted with the framing of the bills and want of sufficient command in Mi- nisters to procure the assent of the Commons—a want of con- centrative power to overcame that dissent which lies in the infinite variety of opinion among every numerous body of men. The Select Committee we presume, will not neglect to point out the practical inconveniences which arise from bringing before Parliament bills so ill prepared, that the syntax will not bear parsing—that the plain intent of the pro- poser's explanatory speech is totally missed in the enacting bill —that other statutes which ought to be repealed stand good, while hosts which are never thought of are repealed by misad- venture—that one part of the statute repeals another—with many more habitual characteristics of measures as they are now laid on the table of either House. These inconveniences are so very ob- vious that they cannot escape the expository recognition of the Committee. The inconveniences arising from the other cause are no less plain, and therefore we fully anticipate that the Com- mittee will point out the advantage that would result to the con- duct of public business, if the Sovereign were graciously to select for her Ministers men, if we may be allowed the expression, "who can say ' bo ' to a goose "—men who have a will of their own, and can let the faithful Commons know it; so that the Pre- mier shall not become, as it were, the mere drudge, the scape- goat, the fag, the errand-boy of Parliament—the miserable Jack who is to do all things for all men, and is allowed nothing to do anything withal—the Egyptian slave who is to make bricks with- out straw—the Caliban that is to bear the burden while the other conspirators carouse—the Jerry Sneak, of importance in no com- pany, without whom everything is settled, before his very face— the barren hen that is pecked at by all her fellows, and forced to take refuge under carts and wheelbarrows. Such a position as we have endeavoured to illustrate by very inadequate similitudes is not meet for the Prime Minister of the British empire. It is so very inconvenient to have a commander-in-chief who cannot command anything at all, but must beg a little authority in forma pauperis from the charity of his antagonists, that the Committee cannot overlook that fertile source of obstruction.
But other parties besides Ministers have much to correct. Mr. John Bright having made himself somewhat prominent in cen- sure, he is very fairly called upon by the Times to set an example of effective legislation, and, instead of talking about "grievances," to specify his grievances and bring in speci- fic remedies. It is no doubt true that an immense amount of time is wasted by Parliament in mutual complaints and recri- minations; and that none are more open to just retorts than those who profess to be the Anti-Ministerial leaders—using the term Anti-Ministerial in its broadest signification. They have con- spired with Ministerial inefficiencies to convert the proceedings of Parliament into a farce, either by making those proceedings degenerate into the merest mechanical conterfeit of deliberation, or by so shaping their appeals as to preclude success and render it a foreseen impossibility:.
According to the practice of the most knowing of these "Re- formers," no question is trusted to its merits—those are quite put aside, as utterly unworthy to be trusted. A proposition is de- signedly so framed as to avoid setting forth the conviction of the propounder or present his object distinctly : on the contrary, the conviction of the propounder is sunk, the object is dimmed until it is lost to sight, in order that a vague and aimless generality may "catch the more votes," and men who do not agree may be combined in a futile semblance of agreement. Is it posbible to imagine any -device more idle and puerile ?
The " motion" being so framed, every effort is employed, be- hinti.the.scente, to " orgaiiize, support" for the measure in debate and at division: a party is gathered, and pledged to support the scheme; their success is to be a "victory." The mover therefore does not come before Parliament as a man of earnest 'purpose in- viting conviction, but as the captain of a trained band challeng- ing resistance. He is resisted, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he is defeated. If he is not very much beaten, he and. his supporters take to crowing like Irishmen driven out of a fair, who deride the feebleness of their opponents for not sending them home on shutters; and a very boastful display of two sets of figures, the statistics of the division, is made in the papers for a week after, as if there had been a victory : it is a sort of French view of the victory at Waterloo, which was " virtually " with Bonaparte.
The supporters collected, they agree to " advocate" their pro- position by means the most aptly chosen to secure a thorough rout. They studiously evade the truth, that they may conspire to dress up a case ; though there is in reality as little hope of con- cealing the residuary truth from the acumen of the other side as the ostrich has of hiding his body in his own nightcap. And the case being false through incompleteness, it is no less studiously_ overlaid with every possible atom of minute detail, so as to pall attention before the real subject is unfolded, to conceal the main drift and force of the proposition, and to supply every loophole for the ingenuity of adverse cavillers. If men wish to command the assent of a numerous body to a "principle," they divest it of secondary and collateral matters, and endeavour to present it in a form as naked as possible, as concise, distinct, substantial, lucid, and unmistakeable; so that the whole virtue which is in it may go straight to the senses and heart of the hearer, and force him to assent. The method selected by the Parliamentary advocates of our day is in every respect the opposite of all this. They may say that Parliament is composed of men so little en- dowed with intellect or faith, that mere truth or justice is not sufficient to obtain acquiescence in a sound proposition, and that such acquiescence cannot be obtained without resorting to extra- neous helps like those which we deprecate. But this would be tantamount to saying that the proposition in question, sound as it may be, is not ripe for being brought under discussion in Parlia- ment. If it cannot find within the walls of that duplex assem- blage enough men, heartily joining in their conviction, to concur in its most distinct and forcible enunciation, it is not yet in a state for their handling; and they must leave its discussion to others out of doors—to the public, to the conversation of society, to the controversy and exposition of the press. A great deal too much is foisted upon Parliament, which had much better be left to local bodies ; but when it is employed as a mere debating society for discussion of unsettled questions in politics and political economy, its true function is altogether perverted. If Anti-Ministerial parties will join with the Ministers for the time being and their supporters—supposing those Ministers to be sincere and efficient—much may be done to contract the discus- sions of Paliament within proper limits, and to disengage its at- tention for the practical business before it. The first step, no doubt, is to make Ministers and Members thoroughly in earnest about the wish for amendment : and perhaps, among other achievements, the Select Committee may accomplish that greatest of all—the infusion of a little earnestness into Parliament.
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