A GREAT PRINCIPLE

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 936, 1 October 1910, Page 5

A GREAT PRINCIPLE

, UNDERMINED BY TIE LABOUR PLEDGE. ;The:i British .. Labour.' '• ' party'spledge sHpulates, tKaV" a shall.'sigh; and aooept tho "conditions of 'the Labour' party .and b'o subject:.to theirj- Whip/' When; the. Osborne; case was taken on appeal to tho House of Lords, . Lord Shaw, in giving.' his .judgment,, made rotable reference to ■ the .constitutional position .of pledge-bound members of Parhament:,! A Labour . signing . the party pledge, his . Lordship' said, caine under a contract to plaw his: vote and; action ihto subjection not £o his own .'convictions, 'but to. the partes "decisions. >■}'"! do! not think,"'Lord ShawTsaid;!"that;.such;sutK jection is . compatible either : with tho .'spirit of our .parliamentary - constitution or with that; independence .and freedom 'which have hitherto .'been held'! to lie' at the. basis .of representative . government in ! the - ' United.!' Kingdom." '; These ! con-, siderations,appealed not to labour!organisations alone,;..but\vith' even ' greater. foTce .to! individual, men ;or/.organisations or trosts.'of men .' using, capital funds -to procure . 'the . subjection /of ..'members'?! of Parliament!to their/commands/ ... | ! ', •"Por ray part," said Lord Shaw, "I look . upon''the whole ' doctrine: as; necessarily! flowing .from the - idea' .-that- conceived -i'as a body of advisers to the; King—is free-in its: election and' free in its; advice. .This fundamental idei. of-'freedom has ' stood upon . 1 the Statute Book for many centuries. It is quite.'true;, that.the protections .which are thrown around freedom are; 'largely.: in the shape .'of'.securing ,to electors.' and / 'constituencies. the!. exercise '' wi.thout.! constraint orcorruption of -' the franchise they enjoy. But all this would •have been .a mockery if, after.purity and -.'freedom;httd.-'been enjoined ; amongst 'the constituencies, : the representatives of the ■elcotoTs were-, not to. be in. the' possession, of their'freedom!, in thought, advice, and .action, '.hot , to!.-be free, . but to bo .bound under contract to submit for. a salary and at peril of .loss! of it .to the judgment- of ■others.. These , have . fen frequently the subject of evasion and attack —sometimes .open, sometimes seoret—but - they have.riever been' overthrown'. They applied' to labourists' men,, to capitalists' moni or,! as iiri .former' times', to King's men. Tho money payment which is. the .price of voting''at the bidding of others destroys, or imperils' freedom of: advice; ..which is fundamental in 'the free constitution'of Parliament; Inter jalia,. the Labour party pledge.! is an nnconstitu'tional unwarrantable interference with the -rights of the constituencies, of the United Kingdom.'; The: member of •.Parliament must. be free and not be a paid, mandatory of any man 'or organisation'; of men, nor is lie entitled to bind himself and his : opinions on public! questions to others for wages or at the peril : of pecuniary loss."