The Mother of Parliaments

"2. That it is expedient that the powers of the House of Lords, as respects Bills other than Money Bills, be restricted by Law, so that any such Bill which has passed the House of Commons in three successive Sessions, and, having been sent up to the House of Lords at least one month before the end of the Session, has been rejected by that House in each of those sessions, shall become Law without the consent of the House of Lords on the Royal Assent being declared; Provided that at least two years shall have elapsed between the date of the first introduction of the Bill in the House of Commons and the date on which it passes the House of Commons for the third time.

"For the purposes of this Resolution a Bill shall be treated as rejected by the House of Lords if it has not been passed by the House of Lords either without Amendment or with such Amendments only as may be agreed upon by both Houses."

"3. That it is expedient to limit the duration of Parliament to five years."

52

The following further Resolutions stand upon the Notice Paper and still await consideration: —

"(1) That in future the House of Lords shall consist of Lords of Parliament: A. Chosen by the whole body of hereditary peers from among themselves and by nomination by the Crown. B. Sitting by virtue of offices and of qualifications held by them. C. Chosen from outside.

"(2) That the term of tenure for all Lords of Parliament shall be the same, except in the case of those who sit ex-officio, who would sit so long as they held the office for which they sit."

53

Hayward's "Essays," p. 305.

54

Hansard, vol. 289, p. 957 (1884).

55

Durham, both County and City, was not enfranchised until 1673, and Monmouth was regarded as a Welsh County.

56

"The House of Commons is called the Lower House in twenty Acts of Parliament," says Selden. "But what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst friends?" – "Table Talk," p. 36.

57

"Quarterly Review," vol. xxix. p. 63.

58

Raikes's "Journal," vol. i. p. 157.

59

"Pall Mall Gazette," December 28, 1860.

60

The Irish members were increased to 105 in 1832, but subsequently reduced to 103, fifty years later.

61

Hansard, "Debates," 18 April, 1864.

62

The General Election of 1880 cost £1,700,000. This expenditure was reduced to about a million pounds after the passing of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act and the Redistribution Bill of 1883 and 1885. By the former the expenses in boroughs are limited to £350, if the number of electors does not exceed 2000; and to £380 if it does exceed 2000, with an extra £30 for every further 1000 electors. In counties, where the electors do not exceed 2000, the expenses are limited to £650, and to £710 if they exceed 2000, with an extra £60 for every further 1000 electors. These sums do not include personal expenses up to £100 and the charges of the returning officer.

63

Hansard, "Debates," vol. 288, p. 1563. (5 June, 1884.) (The phrase was first used in a novel entitled, "Friends of Bohemia, or Phases of London Life," published in 1857, by a Parliamentary writer named E. M. Whitty.)

64

"Parliamentary History," vol. i. p. 766.

65

Andrew Marvell continued to receive a salary from Hull until his death in 1678 (see his "Works," vol. ii., xxxv.), and the member for Harwich obtained a writ against that borough for his salary in 1681.

66

"Diary," 30 March, 1668.

67

Irving's "Annals of Our Time," p. 912. (The majority in 1870 was 187.)

68

"Autobiography of Mrs. Delany," vol. ii. p. 511.

69

Wraxall's "Posthumous Memoirs."

70

p. 270.

71

Speech at Bristol in 1774. ("Works and Correspondence of E. Burke," vol. iii. p. 236). Algernon Sidney anticipated this remark. "It is not therefore for Kent or Sussex, Lewes or Maidstone, but for the whole nation, that the members chosen in those places are sent to serve in Parliament." – "Discourse Concerning Government," vol. ii. p. 370.

72

Bell's "Biographical Sketches," p. 82.

73

Croker, in 1820, complains of having to attend a three o'clock dinner and dance at Bodmin, when he stood as candidate; the whole affair being, he says, "at once tiresome and foolish." "Croker Papers," vol. i. p. 166.

74

"Institute of the Laws of England," 4th part, p. 3.

75

Sir H. C. Robinson's "Diary and Reminiscences," vol. ii. pp. 315-6.

76

Moore wrote to Lady Donegal in 1807: "I begin at last to find out that politics is the only thing minded in this country, and that it is better even to rebel against government than have nothing to do with it." "Memoirs," vol. i. p. 225.

77

Prior's "Life of Burke," vol. ii. p. 454.

78

Buxton's "Memoirs," p. 154.

79

In olden days members used to return from Westminster to London through lanes infested with robbers. This cry enabled them to assemble and leave the House in one another's company.

80

It is curious to reflect that a man may be a member of Parliament even though he is not entitled to a vote as an elector. The Rt. Hon. Austen Chamberlain was not only a member, but even a Cabinet Minister, at a time when he had no vote.

81

Naunton's "Fragmenta Regalia," p. 21.

82

Shaftesbury's "Life," vol. i. p. 30 n.

83

Townsend's "History," vol. ii. p. 400.

84

Reresby's "Memoirs," p. 51.

85

"Sir," he said in debate, "the atrocious crime of being a young man, which the hon. gentleman (Horace Walpole) has with such decency and spirit charged against me, I shall neither attempt to palliate or deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience."

86

Chesterfield's "Letters," vol. ii. p. 339. In order to escape the fine of £50 °Chesterfield retired from political life for a short time.

87

Grant's "Recollections," p. 62.

88

See Hansard, vol. clxii. p. 1941.

89

When the Lords were temporarily abolished in 1648, peers were elected to the Commons, but only a few seem to have availed themselves of this privilege. Porritt's "Unreformed House of Commons," vol. i. p. 123.

90

Horne Tooke was a man of strength and determination. Upon all great public questions, as he once declared, "neither friends nor foes, nor life nor death, nor thunder nor lightning, would ever make him give way the breadth of one hair." When Lord Temple claimed a superior right to sit in Parliament because he had "a stake in the country," "So have I," said Tooke, "but it was not stolen from a public hedge!"

91

In 1558 it was voted by a small majority that one outlawed or guilty of various frauds might sit in the House if duly elected, his crimes being apparently purged by virtue of his election. See Raikes's "English Constitution," vol. i. p. 323.

92

See the "Black Book," p. 61.

93

"Edinburgh Review" (October, 1838), vol. lxviii. p. 114. The two happiest days of a statesman's life are said to be the day when he accepts high office and the day when he resigns it (Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. i. p. 561). Lord Rosebery defined the acceptance and resignation of office as "the two supreme pleasures – one ideal, the other real."

94

Speech made to the farmers at Amersham Market, 1847.

95

Knight's "London," vol. vi. p. 135.

96

Stow's "A Survey of London," p. 173.

97

The Lord Great Chamberlain, who holds an hereditary freehold office of state, is the custodian of the Palace of Westminster. He was originally an executive officer of the King's household, appointed to look after the royal residence. In 1133 the office was granted by Henry I. to Aubrey de Vere, father of the first Earl of Oxford, and to his heirs. Henry VIII. gave the post on several occasions for life to different favourites, not necessarily of the De Vere family, but since the time of Elizabeth the Lord Great Chamberlainship has been held without exception by descendants of the Earl of Oxford. To-day the families of Cholmondeley on the one side, and Ancaster and Carrington on the other, share the privileges of the office, a representative of each branch holding the Chamberlainship in turn during the lifetime of alternate sovereigns. The Lord Great Chamberlain retains authority over the buildings of both Houses, even during the session, whenever Parliament is not sitting. Here his official responsibilities end. In former times a considerable part of his duties consisted in attending his sovereign at the Coronation, when he was not only expected to dress the King, to "carry the coif, swords, and gloves, etc."; but also to undress him, and to wait on him at dinner, "having for his fee the King's bed and all the furniture of his chamber, the night apparel and the silver basin wherein the King washes, with the towels." It is traditional that if the King sleeps at Westminster he must occupy the Lord Great Chamberlain's house. George IV. did so on the eve of his Coronation, the Speaker of the House of Commons handing over his residence for the purpose to the Lord Great Chamberlain for a nominal fee. On this occasion the officials in waiting on His Majesty spent a restless night. Lord Gwydyr, the Deputy Lord Great Chamberlain, and his secretary, took their stand on one side of the King's chamber, and the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod on the other, and there they remained until morning. (See "The Gentleman's Magazine." July, 1821.)

98

Forster's "Grand Remonstrance," p. 276, note.

99

Brown's "Amusements," pp. 39-40.

100

"At Westminster Hall, where Mrs. Lane and the rest of the maids had their white scarfs, all having been at the burial of a young bookseller in the Hall," "Pepys' Diary," 20 January, 1659.

101

"With cedar roof, and stony wall,Old William Rufus built this hall;Without a roof, with scarce a wall,William Unroof-us spoils it all."Hawkins's "Biographical Sketches," vol. i. p. 341.

102

There is a well-known story of a sentry at the Castle who was accused of sleeping at his post, and secured his acquittal by proving that he had heard "Great Tom" strike thirteen times at midnight – a fact which was corroborated by the evidence of independent witnesses.

103

These bells must have been extremely unpopular, since it was fabled that their ringing "soured all the drink in the town." Stow's "Survey of London," p. 175.

104

Speaker Lenthall once rebuked a youthful member who was sitting perched upon the topmost rung, listening to a debate, and bade him come down and not "sit upon the ladder as though he were going to be hanged." Forster's "Historical Sketches," vol. i. p. 82.

105

"The Rolliad."

106

Dalling's "Historical Characters," vol. ii. p. 175.

107

Knight's "London," vol. ii. p. 68.

108

Pinkerton's "Voyages," vol. ii. p. 508.

109

Moore's "Memoirs," vol. iv. p. 320.

110

Pearson's "Political Dictionary," p. 37.

111

"The Rolliad."

112

A comparatively modern institution which did not exist until the year 1818.

113

Miss Martineau's "History of the Peace," vol. iii. p. 147.

114

Barry was assisted in his work by another well-known artist, Augustus Welby Pugin. The latter's son afterwards claimed for his father the honour of being the real designer of the Houses of Parliament, but his efforts to wrest the laurels from Barry's brow met with little success.

115

Big Ben was so named after Sir Benjamin Hall, First Commissioner of Works. The light is extinguished by an official in the House of Commons by means of an electric switch, the moment the Speaker's question "that the House do now adjourn" has been agreed to.

116

Mowbray's "Seventy Years at Westminster," p. 90.

117

Francis' "Orators of the Age," p. 212, and Grant's "Random collections," p. 7.

118

T. P. O'Connor's "Gladstone's House of Commons," p. 88.

119

Pearson's "Political Dictionary," p. 19.

120

"25 April, 1822. Eat cold meat at Bellamy's (introduced by Lambton); and did not leave the House till near two." – Thomas Moore's "Memoirs," vol. iii. p. 346.

121

"Sketches by Boz," p. 109 (1855).

122

Sheil's "Sketches of the Irish Bar," vol. ii. p. 236.

123

"Fragmenta Regalia," p. 23.

124

It is not absolutely necessary for a Cabinet Minister to sit in either House. Gladstone was a Secretary of State from December 1845, to July, 1846, without a seat in Parliament.

125

Hervey's "Memoirs of George II.," vol. ii. p. 551.

126

"Our immemorial Cabinet Dinner was at Lord Lonsdale's," writes Lord Malmesbury, on March 17, 1852. "Each of us gives one on a Wednesday." – "Memoirs of an Ex-Minister," vol. i. p. 321.

127

Wraxall's "Memoirs," vol. i. p. 527.

128

"Granville dined at the Lord Chancellor's yesterday," wrote Lady Granville to the Duke of Devonshire, on November 8, 1830, when the question of the postponement of the King's visit to the city was filling the minds of Ministers. "The Chancellor came in after they were all seated from a Cabinet that had lasted five hours, returned to be at it again till two, and the result you see in the papers." – Lady Granville's "Letters," vol. ii. p. 63.

129

See Speaker Onslow's "Essay on Opposition," "Hist. MSS. Commission" (1895), App. ix. p. 460.

130

Coxe's "Pelham Administration," vol. i. p. 486.

131

Ashley's "Life of Palmerston," vol. ii. p. 233.

132

Walpole was First Lord of the Treasury for more than twenty-one years, but Macaulay says that he cannot be called Prime Minister until some time after he had been First Lord. – "Miscellaneous Writings," p. 359.

133

Walpole distributed government patronage freely among the members of his own family. His relations held offices worth nearly £15,000 a year, and, two years after he relinquished office, his own places brought him in an annual income of £2000. He made his eldest son Auditor of the Exchequer, and his second son Clerk of the Pells. He gave his son Horace two posts, as Clerk of the Estreats and Comptroller of the Pipe, when the boy was still an infant. Later on he gave him a position in the Customs, and lastly made him Usher of the Exchequer, an office worth about £1000 a year. See "Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole," vol. i. p. 730; Cunningham's "Letters of Horace Walpole," vol. i. pp. lxxxiv. and 314.

134

"My father would be a very able man – if he knew anything," Lord Stanley is supposed to have said of him. Hutton's "Studies," p. 48.

135

"He evidently attempts to imitate Mr. Pitt in his manner and rhetorick; but the clumsy attempts of a heavy domestic fowl to take wing are very different from the vivid and lofty soaring of the lark." Courtney's "Characteristics," p. 42.

136

Grattan's "Life and Times," vol. v. p. 417.

137

Hayward's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 39.

138

Butler's "Reminiscences," pp. 154-157.

139

Russell's "Recollections," p. 263.

140

Among the unpublished manuscripts at Welbeck Abbey are some private notes made by the Duke of Portland, who was Prime Minister in 1783, suggesting methods of treatment suitable for various political allies at the time of the Coalition Ministry. The following extracts are of interest: —

"Lord Salisbury. Irish jobs.

Lord Thanet. Personal attention.

Lord Cornwallis. Should be spoken to: has two members in the

House of Commons.

Lord Clarendon. Anything for himself or Lord Hyde.

Lord Wentworth. Wants something. He voted against.

Duke of Argyle. Great attention. Scotch jobs.

Gen. Luttral. To be sent for next session. Lord Temple should not be allowed all the merit of the job that we done for him lately.

Gen. Vaughan. Quebec, or a Command anywhere.

Lord Westcote. Distant hopes of a Peerage.

Mr. Gibbon. Will vacate his seat for an employment out of Parliament:

very much wished by Lord Loughborough."

(N.B. – This Gibbon is the historian.)

141

"Fortnightly Review," No. I, p. 10.

142

The necessity of pleasing George III. compelled many Prime Ministers to include his friend Addington in their administrations, and inspired Canning to remark that this Minister was like the small-pox, which everybody was obliged to have once in their lives.

143

Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. v. p. 327.

144

"Life of Eldon," vol. iii. p. 486.

145

"History of the Political Life of C. J. Fox," pp. 76-7.

146

"The Chancellor of the Exchequer exists to distribute a certain amount of human misery," he once remarked, "and he who distributes it most equally is the best Chancellor."

147

See Bagehot's "English Constitution," p. 200.

148

Among the offices in the Royal Household which are filled by the Prime Minister, the most important are those of the Master of the Horse, the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, the seven Lords in Waiting, and the Mistress of the Robes.

149

A complete list of the salaries and offices of Ministers does not lie within the scope of this volume. It will be sufficient to enumerate briefly the most important members of the administration. First in order of precedence stand the Prime Minister, the Lord High Chancellor, the Lord President of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal (an office to which, like that of the Prime Minister, no salary is attached), and the First Lords of the Treasury and Admiralty. After these come the five Secretaries of State: for Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, the Colonies, War, and India. These are followed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretaries for Scotland and Ireland, the Postmaster-General, the Presidents of the Board of Trade, Local Government Board, Board of Agriculture, and Board of Education, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the First Commissioner of Works. There are, besides, eight Parliamentary Under-Secretaries, four Junior Lords of the Treasury (one of whom is unpaid), a Patronage Secretary, a Financial Secretary, a Paymaster-General, Attorney-General, and Solicitor-General. Scotland is represented by a Lord-Advocate and a Scottish Solicitor-General; Ireland by a Lord-Lieutenant, a Lord Chancellor, an Attorney-General, and a Solicitor-General.

150

Exceptions are made by Statute in favour of the Secretary of the Treasury and some other officers, or of a Minister who is transferred from one office to another in the same Administration.

151

Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal are very prone to puns. When Lord Campbell replaced Lord Plunket as Chancellor of Ireland he had to cross the Channel in a storm. Plunket's secretary remarked that if the new Chancellor were not drowned, he would be very sick. "Perhaps," said Plunket, "he'll throw up the seals!" Lord Chancellor Westbury once told an eminent counsel that he was getting as fat as a porpoise. "In that case," replied the other, "I am evidently a fit companion of the great Seal." Lord Lyndhurst is another Chancellor who made a joke of this sort. There must be something, too, in the atmosphere of a change of Ministry which evokes bad puns. When Disraeli was appointed to Lord Derby's Cabinet in 1852, more than one eminent politician facetiously remarked that now Benjamin's mess would be five times as great as that of the others. And, fourteen years later, when the same statesman was bidden to form a Ministry of his own, Lord Chelmsford, whom he had relieved of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, shamelessly observed that if the old Government was "the Derby," this new one was certainly "the Hoax" (see Martin's "Life of Lyndhurst," p. 481 n., and the "Life of Lord Granville," vol. i. p. 479, etc.).

152

If Pitt had been dismissed from office "after more than five years of boundless power," says Macaulay, "he would hardly have carried out with him a sum sufficient to furnish a set of chambers in which, as he cheerfully declared, he meant to resume the practice of the Law." – "Miscellaneous Writings," p. 347.

153

Lord Ellesmere observes that in the 8th Chapter of Samuel, Jehoshaphat the son of Abilud, the Chancellor among the Hebrews, was called "Mazur," which, translated into English, becomes "Sopher," or Recorder. "Whether the Lord Chancellor of England as now he is, may be properly termed Sopher or Mazur, it may receive some needlesse question, howbeit it cannot be doubted but his office doth participate of both their Functions." – "Observations concerning the Office of Lord Chancellor," p. 2.

154

The Seal was stolen from Lord Thurlow by burglars in 1784, and the offer of a reward of £200 failed to retrieve it. When Lord Chancellor Eldon's house at Encombe caught fire in 1812, he buried the Seal for safety's sake in the garden, and then forgot where he had buried it. His family spent most of the next day digging for it before it was finally recovered. Eldon seems to have taken the fire very easily. "It really was a very pretty sight," he wrote, "for all the maids turned out of their beds, and formed a line from the water to the fire-engine, handing the buckets; they looked very pretty, all in their shifts." Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. vii. p. 300.

155

Queen Eleanor was a remarkable woman. At the age of thirteen she was the author of a heroic poem, and in the following year became a wife. Piers of Langtoft describes her as

"The fayrest Maye in lyfe,Her name Elinore of gentle nurture,Beyond the sea there was no such creature."

156

Naunton's "Fragmenta Regalia," p. 38.

157

"The Fyrste Dyaloge in Englys, between a Doctoure of Dyvynyte and a Student in the Lawes of England" (1539).

158

Judicature Act of 1873, section 24.

159

His barbarous treatment of the wretched Anne Askew is notorious. For denying that the sacramental blood and wine lost their material elements after consecration, Anne was condemned to be tortured, and the Lord Chancellor with his own hands stretched the rack on which the unfortunate woman was bound, in the hope of extracting a confession. It must, however, be admitted that Wriothesley's heart was not entirely impervious to emotion, for when, as Lord Chancellor, he announced the death of Henry VIII. in the House of Lords, he could not refrain from bursting into tears.