Letters to the Editor
Conscience and Constituents R. L. Travers Political Killing Patrick Campbell Hungary Prof: C. A. Macartney and others Mighty Old Artificer Evelyn Waugh Comprehensive Education Miss M. F. C. Harvey Sanitation on Trains W. Grant Haugh Dead Sea Scrolls Gwilym 0. Griffith [hose Shop-Fronts Alan Farmer, Anthony Rouse Ilse Free-Stander Chamberlin, Powell & Bon nterminable Paul Hamburger
CONSCIENCE AND CONSTITUENTS
SIR,—In your issue of October 19 Lord Altrincham denigrates Mr. Nicolson and Lord Salisbury for expressing the view that the elec- torate should be consulted before Parliament abolishes capital punishment. If I understand him aright, Lord Altrincham thinks that the view he decries amounts to a revision of 'all our long-cherished notions of parliamen- tary government' and the supersession of Parliament by opinion polls.
One of the 'long-cherished notions' which Lord Altrincham ignores is 'the fundamental dogma of modern constitutionalism: that the legal sovereignty of Parliament is subordinate to the political sovereignty of the nation' (see Keith's Constitutional Law, 1939 edition, p.19) Another such notion is the doctrine of mandate, namely that no Parliament should pass important legislation on which the people have not given it a mandate. This latter doctrine, although the subject of considerable controversy, is by no means the novelty that Lord Altrincham supposes. It is mentioned by Dicey with approval and was denounced by Gladstone when it was advanced against him by his political opponents.
Although nobody denies Burke's dictum that a member of Parliament is not a mere delegate, it by no means follows that, once elected, he is entitled to ignore public opinion and vote according to his own sweet will. In making up his mind which way to vote, he can and should take into consideration the state of public opinion in general and the views of his constituents in particular.—Yours faithfully,
R. L. TRAVERS Junior Carlton Club, Pall Mall, SW 1
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