The Daily News. TUESDAY, APRIL 12. THE IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 361, 12 April 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, APRIL 12. THE IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

With rumors of a coming dissolution, it is interesting to glance at the 582 representatives sent to the British House of Commons last January. The gathering is held to be the most representative of the .people that ever sat at Westminster, At least, it is indicative of the kind of men who hold the greatest sway with the people of the old land. It is remarkable that in a people whose future freedom from trammel depends entirely on the soil of which they own so little, that their conservatism should lead them to suppose the territorial dignitaries to be their best friends. Naturally, and always, the landed man wields a larger influence than any other class, because, as a general thing, he holds the existence of many people in the hollow of his hand, and is able to dictate terms. The people of England have, with exceptions, always felt very much obliged to the territorial holders for permitting them to exist and to pay rent; and so it follows that the people, when able to return a little kindness, duly send their landlords to Parliaimrai. Of the total 552 members of the House of Commons there are 128 "land-owners, .►peers' sons, and gentlemen." There are /15 others classed as "independent gentlemen." It is at once seen that the worker of England is not particularly anxious that his own class should represent him in the Commons. It lias 'become such a habit with him to associate gold with brains that the worker who gets into Parliament must be a very extraordinary man indeed. It is not at all necessary for the "squire" to have brains, The fact that he is able to .control his own very large purse and the very small purse of many tenants is the reason, in their view, why he should control the country. As in the New Zealand House of Representatives, so in the Imperial Parliament, busy lawyers form a large ' proportion of the total. It is always curious that men whose living is made by breaches of the law, and who, indeed, owe much of their success to an ability to "drive a coach and horses through an Act," should be anxious to be law-makers. There are 107 .barristers and 34 solicitors in the House of Commons, so that despite the large number of idle men who may be classed as "landholders," the law.yers strikingly preponderate. The word "idleness" is, of course, merely used in its non-political sense, for some of the most brilliant men in Britain belon* to the landed aristocracy. It is, perhaps, only necessary to mention the name of Lord Hugh Cecil to prove that wealth and a great name and position cannot always rob: a man of a desire or ability to do great things for his country. It is almost impossible to add the whole of the 44 Army officer! who sit in Parliament to the landholders," and they owe their positions largely to their tenants. Then even up to the present day "the Army" is not a serious business with sons 'of the 'landed gentry," although scions of noble houses do often reach eminence in the service. As a contrast, there are only four Navy officers.in the Comimons. It is worth noting that the group 'Of men known as the "Nationalists" are nearly all recruited from the ranks of the farming and journalistic classes, lne forty Labor members are truly representative, and it is seen that a Labor man generally has the better chance when there is no candidate of the squire" class to face. Indeed, the Labor man has the best chance when ne resides m the thick of a populous manufacturing district. It would be inconceivable for a constituency composed largely of ten-shiflings-a-week farm laborers to return a KeirHardie. The ranks of the British Parliament are practically closed to other than men of independent means excepting, of course, in regard to Labor members whose constituents see that they are repaid. Perhaps nonpayment of members has the effect of bringing into politics many men of •leisure who look upon politics as a pag™me - Perhaps payment of members has the effect (in some countries where it operates) of bringing into politics men ~ who would stay out of it but for the payment. This fawt remains, that there is 'no special qualification required for entrance into any British Parliament, whether it is at Westminster or overseas. Bankers and ministers, cotton spinners and peers' sons, medical men and professors, journalists and cattle-dealers, ■pilots and tea-planters, all sit on the benches at Westminster. Politics is the only occupation in which, by general consent, anybody may at once enter without knowledge, and without qualiffication. In a case where a politician, ■by the casting of a vote, pretends to represent the ,will of many millions of people, the responsibility is very great. And yet the merchant or the brewer, the schoolmaster or the hanker, who yesterday had not straveS outside his 'profession, to-day will cheerfully pledge a few million folk to his views.' In the far future there may be a school for politicians where they wili at least pass the .political first standard before they seek "the vote and interest" of the constituent.