AN ANCIENT PRIVILEGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 227, 17 November 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

AN ANCIENT PRIVILEGE.

CONNECTED WITH THE HOl'S'il

OF COMMONS.

Many ancient privileges appertain *rv tiki House of Commons and are verv jealously guarded, as, for instance, the right of the member for the Citv of Loudon to t.itke, on the first dav of ■; new session, his seat on the Treasury Uench whatever Government is in power. Another privilege- was asserted only recently, and that was the right of the Lord Mayor of Dublin to :»ppe-ir in j>erson at the Bar of the House an ! present petitions. This privilege goev back to IKI2. and has l>een exercised many times. At the time the privilege was granted to Dubln it was suggested that a similar one should be extended to the Lord High Provost of Edinburgh, but it was not agreed to by the Edinburgh Coropration. It has Iveen said that the reason of the refu--al of the worthy ctiy fathers was that, being a prudent body, they knew better than to spend money in sending their Provost and his retinue 400 miles merely to present a petition which could just as well be sent bv post. On the - occasion referred to, when Dublin's Lord Mayor appeared at the bar. it was noted that he was accompanied by the Town Clerk of Dublin, who read the ■ petition to the House. This official Mr. Henry Campbell, himself a former member of the House of Commons and an ardent Nationalist. He acted .is private secretary to Parnell. the great Irish leader —that tragicajly-mysteri-ous but, withal, very powerful figure oi the late Victorian era.