The House of Commons.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7071, 17 February 1893, Page 3

The House of Commons.

A DANGER AHEAD. Mr Justin MoOathy writing on the English Parliament thus points oat what he considers to be a danger ahead. The Bouse of Commot s still remains sadly lacking in any manner of initiative force. I do not know of any instance io our modern times in which the House of Commons has anticipated in any measure the wants end wishes of the people in general. I know many men in the thick of politics who insist that this is exactly as it should be. The business of the House of Commons, they contend, is to follow and not to lead public opinion. . I cannot take this idea of the business, the functions and the duty of the House of Commons. As it is chosen to represent, so according to my view it is chosen to think, and chosen to load. Just now, it appears to me, that we have come to another parliamentary crisis. The Sovereign, as a disturbing power, has been eliminated. T he House of Lords has been, as Mr Bright said long ago, not abolished, but shunted. I sincerely hope that no future historian of the English Parliament may have to describe a conditions of things under which the House of Common e ebdicted its position as leader of

the nation, and simply confined itseif to the task of putting into law what greater and more observant and more active minds outside Parliament had declared to be proper subjects for legislation, I rnn much mistaken if there is not a danger that something like this should come to pass; and I am earnest in hope that it may not come to pass.