In the House of Commons yesterday week, Mr. Fenwick, M.P.
for the Wansbeck Division of Northumberland, moved
a resolution in favour of the payment of Members of Parlia- ment, in which the sum of 2365 a year, or 21 a day, was suggested as a reasonable allowance, and the reason alleged for the change was that the field of choice is far too narrowly limited by the exclusion of all Members who cannot afford to serve gratuitously, or whose constituents must find the resources by which they must be paid. Lord Elcho affected to support and extend the proposal in a very witty and satirical speech, really, of course, intended to assail it, on which we have dwelt sufficiently in another column; while Mr. Balfour, who admitted cordially the arguments in favour of the pro- posal, which he thought might really add to the effective representation of some at present inadequately represented classes, regarded the arguments against it as very much more weighty than those in its favour. Of these, by far the most important was, he said, the tendency to revolutionise the whole relation between constituencies and their Members, if the constituencies found themselves in a position not only to con- fer honour but to bestow emoluments, and if the candidates for their confidence were really transformed into beggars for their pecuniary generosity. The division showed a majority against the resolution of 65 (227 to 162).
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