GOVERNMENT BY DEPUTATION.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR:1 zSra,—Teehnically speaking, the Constitution of this country only changes at long intervals, and after considerable die- -cussion and agitation; but, in practice, new modes of proce. -dare are adopted without any discussion, by a sort of evolution, which, to outside observers, is extremely funny. One of these mew modes may be fairly called "government by deputation." I find in a paper of March 1st that a deputation of eighteen Radical Members had an interview with Mr. Marjoribanks, ohief Liberal Whip, for the purpose of attempting to impose their will upon him as to the selection of a new Prime Minister in the place of Mr. Gladstone. This deputation of " King- makers " included some names of world-wide fame, such as 'Cobb and. Logan, Rowe, Jones, and Broad, all of whom are .sure to lend immense assistance to the coming man. I have myself attended on two or three occasions deputations to 3finisters at their Offices, at the request of various persons linteresthd in great public questions connected with their 'departments, and I have also often had private interviews with Whips on confidential subjects; but the idea of going with a large deputation to this "Vice of King's vicegerent" for the purpose of selecting a new vicegerent, appears to one as comical as it is novel. On the occasions in which I have shared in these attempts to govern the country by means of deputations, I have always been struck by the contrast between the immense fuss and labour imposed upon those getting up the agitation, and the small amount of means at the disposal of the Minister to satisfy the wishes of those who wait upon him.
I remember going last year with a deputation of the citizens of London to place on record their opinions on the Irish Bill. We followed a body connected with the North of Ireland opponents of that measure. Their interview with the Prime Minister had left him very cross indeed, but he received us with what is called his accustomed urbanity. He threw out from his inexhaustible storehouse a few obser- vations, such as an assurance that his Rome-rule Bill was only a restoration of Grattan's Parliament, to which assertion nobody ventured to offer any contradiction, and bowed us out as quickly as he could. I have also been with deputations connected with complicated economical questions, and never found the smallest progress made by so wasting the Minister's time. I think the hour has come, when along with govern- ment by cross-questions and crooked answers in the House of Commons, government by deputation should be ruthlessly put down, and I submit this is a more urgent matter than the ending or mending the House of Lords.—I am, Sir, &c., 15 St. James's Place, March 2nd. H. R. GRENFELL.
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