HOW BUSINESS IS DONE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (Times.)

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1857, 31 May 1884, Page 4

HOW BUSINESS IS DONE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (Times.)

Ayotiier sitting wasted in the House of Commons lends additional point to tho retna "ks we have made on the growing incapacity of the Ho\se to carry on the business of tbo country. On March 2oth the morning sitting was expressly arranged fottho purpose of advancing a stage in the Contagious Diseases { Animals) Bill. That measure was the second order of the day, the fiist heinu the third reading of the Consolidated Fund Bill, on which in ordinary circumstances no discussion would have arisen. But Loid Randolph Churchill thought proper, in spite of the pretests of the Government and the significant silence of the leaders of the Opposition, to interpose with a motion 0:1 the state of affairs in Egypt and the Soudan, and the discussion of this motion, which was ultimately withdrawn, occupied the best pait of three houis. It would have been contiaiy to the established and laudable usage of Pailiament for the Opposition as> a whole to force on a debate when the Government had formally declined, in the interests of the public service, to accept its challenge ; but an individual member is, we suppose, entitled to act on his own responsibility, and this Lord Randolph Chin chill, whose sense of responsibility is of the slightest, ostentatiously declared that he did. Nearly two hours of the sitting were left after the motion was withdrawn for the discussion of the order relating to the Contagious Diseases Bill, and this suicly ought to have been moic than enough. It was not proposed to take the committee stage of the bill, but merely, as the somewhat colloquial pailiamentary phrase inns, " get the Speaker out of the chair," and then report progress at once. This, it is tiue, is no meie formal stage, binee, as Mr Forster pointed out, it disengages the further stages of the bill from the restrictions imposed by the half-past twelve o'clock rule. But no new question was in issue, the general piinciple of the bill has already been more than amply disous&ed, the amendments of which the Government had given notice for the purpose of restoiing the bill to the condition in which it had been intiodnced into the Hou"C of Louis had already been placed on the paper, ample time had been promised for their cosidcration, and a formal pledge had been given that the Committee stage of the Bill should be taken at a convenient hour. In such circumstances theic was literally no excuse for talking out the Bill, and thus rendering the whole sitting nugatoiy. The blame for this must be attiibuted not meiely &O those who actually did the deed, but to those whoso in epiessible loquacity on a subject already worn thread bate rcndciod its commission possible. It was not until past sW, and when member after mcuibci, each piotesting that he would not detain the Hou-e more than a few minutes, had wandered at will over all the topics suggested by the measure, that Mr Ilcaley was encomaged to get up and tell the House, with exuberant \ crbosity, • the thnse-told tale of Lord Carberj's bull. But the mischief was now done, and when Mr Dodson had replied and two more liish membeis had spoken, the Bill and the sitting devoted to it foil an easy prey to the irresistible oratory of Mr Biggar. It cannot be denied that this result is a scandal, for which the blame must be shared by all who too!; part in a wholly flintier and wholly unnecessary discussion. If cveiy ■stage of cveiy bill is to be debated as if it wcie the sole occasion for discussion, it is plain that all legislation will become impossible. So far as the C'onNigio'is Dwases Bill was concerned, tho silting might ju^t as well not haji c taken place .it all. What is more, it is becoming doubtful whether, m Mew of the iiiepie.ss.ible gairulity of some membeis and the fixed determination of others to impede, delay, and confuse the business laid before Parliament, the expedient of morning sittings is of any pi actical avail. Its only result at present •seems to be to waste the morning and to throw away the evening ; and though the latter is a lcsult which may be borne with equanimity when theie is no more impoitaut business on hand than a motion of Mr Ashmead-Baitlett's on the condition of affairs in Madagascar, yet the country cannoc bo expected to view with patience the intolerable waste of public time involved. The plain tiuth is that in tho pi ebcnr temper of the House of Commons a fixed pciiod — such as is in\ oh ed at a morning sitting 111 the 1 tile w hiv.l' suspends the sitting and the business at a given hour, and at an evening bitting in the half-past twelve o'clock nile-is absolutely fatal to the despatch of business. The existence of such lules 'niphes either that all membeis aie equally coneei ned in the despatch of bu-mc-.5., or at least that the majoiity \\ ho aie so concerned are capable of exercising -i lea^onablc amount of common sense and foibeaiauce. Neither of the-e conditions exists at piesent. The talkative ma|onty plays into the bands 01 the ob^tinetn c nnnoiity, and the lesult is that all business j.s inouglifc to a standstill. The obvious remedy is to do away with the fixed penod, and thib could casilv be done in the case of the morning sitting by a veiy simple expedient, though the case of the half-past tv\ el vc 1 ulc is one of the greater diflicnlty. If in the sitting alluded to. foi instance, it had been possible to les-ume at nine the business suspended at seven, the tactic-, ot ohsti notion would have been defeated. It would have been woith no one's while, not even Mr Biggai's, to talk 011 till .seven o'clock if the 'debate could have been lesumed at nine with the certainty of bJng In ought to a conclusion. Failing this, we can discern no valid rcafcon why the (list Rule ot Piocedure should not have been called into operation before the close of the morning sitting. Talking out of the bill was a palpable act ot obstruction : the question is acknowledged to be one of urgency on both sides of the House. The " manifest bcnse of the House" in favour of putting the question was finely made plain by its consenting to take a morning sitting for the purpose, and no one could possibly deny that "the subjpet has been adequately discussed." Here are all the conditions necessary to justify the application of the rule, and if in so flagiant a case it was thought to be inapplicable, it is somewhat difficult to see in what possible circumstances it is likely to be of use.

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