FATHER AND SON.
MR. DODDS, junior, is not without employment. That is the satisfactory fact—the one satisfactory fact—re- vealed by the discussion of Tuesday morning last. He is a solicitor, and, as many an anxious parent knows, a man may be a solicitor and yet have nothing to do. The law is a coy Mistress, and though complaints of her indifference to her suitors come more often from barristers than from solicitors, they are not unheard even from solicitors. It is gratifying, therefore, to learn that there is one solicitor who, for the moment at all events, has no cause to complain. Mr. Dodds, jun., is solicitor for a Railway Bill—the Stockton Carre Rail- way Bill—and there is no need to explain what a good thing that is. No accounts are run up so easily and paid so readily as Parliamentary accounts. A Private Bill has been always regarded as a little fortune to all con- nected with it, and doubtless it will be a little fortune to Mr. Dodds, junior. Happily, there is every reason to suppose that he works hard for it. Some sons of Members of Parlia- ment seem to think that the fact that their fathers have seats in the House of Commons exonerates them from doing anything to help themselves. That is not the opinion of Mr. Dodds, junior. Much as Fortune may have done for him, he is quite willing to help her to do more. The Stockton Carrs Railway Bill stood for the third reading last Tuesday, and by way of preparation, Mr. Dodds, senior, took upon himself to issue a Whip. Mr. James Lowther had given notice of opposi- tion, and the parental head of Mr. Dodds trembled for the fate of the Bill. It is not quite clear how much of the circular sent out in Mr. Dodds' name was actually composed by himself. His own account of the matter is that before leaving town on the previous Friday, he had left " a portion of it " in the hands of his secretary, and that when he saw the circular he "ex- pressed regret to his son that the passage to which exception had just been taken had been inserted." As it happened, exception had just been taken to pretty nearly every word of the circular ; but Mr. Dodds's regret probably had reference to the words, "My son is the solicitor for the Bill." His wider knowledge of men, no doubt, told him that this was too precise a statement to please those to whom it was addressed. Without these words, the circular would have run, "I am exceedingly anxious to carry the third reading of the Bill, and to defeat Mr. Lowther's opposition to it. May I beg that you will do me the very great personal favour of attending the House on Tuesday next and support the third reading." In this form it was open to the Members who re- ceived the circular to put it down to Mr. Dodds's local patriotism. He is Member for Stockton ; he is impressed with the benefit which the railway will confer upon the town ; he trembles at the Tory opposition which Mr. Lowther can com- mand, and he asks the friends of Stockton and of progress to enable him to defeat it. The natural but injudicious zeal of Mr. Dodds, junior, upset the paternal calculation. He looked, it may be, to the circular as left by his father, and saw in it no mention of the motive which he believed to have dictated it. Would not Members be even more interested in the suc- cess of the Bill, if they knew that the interest which Mr. Dodds had at heart was one dearer to him than his constituency? If they were willing to help a man to serve his borough, how much more willing would they not be to help him to serve his child. Party loyalty may be waxing cold, but the natural affections are as warm as ever, and to appeal to them would be the real way to whip up votes. The missing words were soon added, and as the circular went forth, it put Mr. Dodds's anxiety to. defeat Mr. Lowther, upon what Mr. Dodds, junior, held to be its true foundation,—a father's desire to give his son a lift. "My son is the solicitor for the Bill." I am no infidel,' the son makes his father say ; I have not denied the faith. I do. care for my own household. By your votes on Tuesday show that you do net despise this simple virtue.' The error of Mr. Dodds, junior, was that of hasty generalisa- tion. His admiring gaze has been fixed so long on the character of Sir William Harcourt, that he has eyes for no one else in the House. Sir William Harcourt, he felt sure, would appreciate the situation, and would like the father all the better for trying to do the son a good turn. Sir William Harcourt completely justified the confidence placed in him by his disciple. Amid cruel assaults, and contemptuous defences almost more annoying than assaults, he alone maintained that there was nothing "pecuniary or personal' in Mr. Dodds's desire that his son should prosper in his business, and that the Commons of England should make that business their peculiar care. He pleaded, however, in vain, for though Mr. Dodds escaped actual censure, it was only on the ground that he had apologised for the issue of the circular, which marks pretty plainly in what light the House regarded it. Not even to help his son, will Mr. Dodds put out such a circular again. To him, at all events, that channel of parental affection is closed, for he has rather injured than benefited his son. Whether the Bill be passed or not, Mr. Dodds, junior, will equally have been the solicitor employed, and there is no apparent reason why his account should not be equally long ; but though, as we know nothing of the merits of the Bill, we will predict nothing as to its chances, the incident of the circular is not likely to help it on the 25th.
Among the reasons which Sir William Harcourt assigned for acquitting Mr. Dodds was the frequency with which the offence is committed. "There was a custom—whether good or bad, he did not say—of sending round private Whips.' Few people will share the Home Secretary's uncertainty on this point. The custom, if it exists, is a thoroughly bad one. Whether a private Whip necessarily offends against the Standing Order forbidding Members to take any action with regard to a private Bill in which they have a personal interest, is a matter for the Speaker. But if it does not offend against the Standing Order, the terms of the Order cannot be too soon enlarged. In the case of a public Bill, every Member of the House may be supposed to. feel an interest in its acceptance or rejection. If Mr. Dodds had thought proper to send out a circular saying,—" I am exceedingly anxious to see the Franchise Bill carried. May I hope that you will do me the very great personal favour of attending the House and supporting the second reading ?" he would only have been acting—not, perhaps, with much effect — as an additional Ministerial whip. But when the object of a circular is the success of a private Bill, who is to say where local interest ends and personal interest begins ? Mr. Dodds says that what he was thinking of was the town of Stockton, not Mr. Dodds, junior. Sir William Harcourt goes further, and argues that even if he had been thinking of Mr. Dodds, junior, the circular would have been quite harmless. The only way of protecting the House against mischief in regard to private Bills, of which other Legislatures afford too many examples, is to forbid the issue of Private Whips. Such whips are often quite disin- terested, the issuer caring, perhaps, only to protect a district from an invasion of Vandals; but they open a door to sus- picions which should never attach to Parliamentary conduct. Such a debate as that of Tuesday will then become impossible, since the moment such a circular as Mr. Dodds's is submitted to the Chair it will at once be pronounced a breach of privilege.
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