The Bagmen’s Parliament.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 36, 3 September 1887, Page 4

The Bagmen’s Parliament.

What particularly strikes one about the present House of Commons is the low, mercenary tone which pervades it. Politics are dealt out as a draper measures his ribbons. There is little or no reference to principle, to public spirit, to honour, to virtue, to the doing of good, noble, and pleasant things because it is right to do what is good, noble, and pleasant. On the contrary the only principles by which you can discover that the great majority of the house are actuated are those of “ private interests, ” “ privileges, ” “monopolies.” It is a bagmen's parliament in the most emphatic sense of the word, wholly void of character, and almost beneath contempt. The Tories nearly to a man seem to imagine that the function of a member of parliament is simply to resist every proposal which will in any way; affect the interests or privileges of himself or his friends, no matter how much it may be for the general good of the people. Such an assembly can be viewed only with disgust. Men will turn away from parliament to bestow their attention upon the local representative bodies which they will constitute local parliaments of their own. If every board hail upon it a majority of working men and there is no reason why this should not be the case—we could afford with a light heart to dispense with a bagmen’s parliament.—Home Paper.