PUBLICITY OF PROCEEDINGS.
THE materials of legislation furnished to the House, and the means of efficiently operating upon them laid before it, there remains but one subject more in order to finish this brief sketch of legislative remedies-
THE PROMULGATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS OE THE HOUSE.-We have already stated what is now done by the House,-directly nothing, indirectly very little more. What is now done by individuals ?-A great deal, but imperfectly, without accuracy, without authenticity. This is
not a state of things that ought to remain. The House ought to resolve on the regular reporting of its own debates. Sir ROBERT PEEL, when a suggestion to that effect was thrown out during the session before last, deprecated the idea of all the idle words of members going forth to the public. But why are the words of the members idle ? Because members rely on the discretion, good sense, and sometimes on the laziness of the reporters for their suppression. We can imagine no better check on the utterance of language that is indecorous, inconsiderate, inapplicable, inappropriate-in a word, no means of putting an end to irrelevant and useless discussion-more effectual than the assurance felt by every member, that whatever he says will go forth in a publication, the truth and authenticity of which cannot be im- pugned; the character of whose compilers, and the facilities afforded them, leave no room for imputation of omission, or addition, or mistake. We shall describe, in one of the ordinary numbers of the Spectator, the machinery requisite for reporting the Debates of the House, and give an estimate of the expense. We shall point out also an easy and effec- tual method, by which the capital defect of the only existing work which professes to give a full report of the Debates may be remedied, and yet all imaginable facility given to the correction of any incidental error which the similarity of sound in two words, or an accidental interrup- tion, may, notwithstanding the utmost care and vigilance, introduce into a reporter's notes,-we allude to the defect of exhibiting the speeches of members not as they have been, but as, on consideration, the speakers may wish them to have been spoken. We content ourselves for the present with submitting this, as well as the other branches of our remedial measure, in the shape of a naked proposition, reserving their full elucidation and proof for our ordinary columns.*
Measures must also be taken to obtain the requisite publicity of the proceedings in the Committees.
" It must not be supposed that the promulgation we propose will supersede the Morning Newspapers, though undoubtedly it will operate most usefully m checking their errors and occasional vagaries. But more of this in the Spectator.
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