The Government of England Part 50

The decline in the power of the House is partly due also to the extension of the franchise, and the consequent growth in size of the electorate, which has become so large that the voters cannot be reached by private or personal contact, but only by publicity. A cynic might well say that if oligarchy fosters intrigue, democracy is based upon advertis.e.m.e.nt, for in order to control the electorate it is no longer enough, as it was a hundred years ago, to be backed by a few influential patrons or to enlist the support of the members of Parliament. The immense ma.s.s of the voters must be addressed, and hence public questions must be discussed not only in Parliament, but in the ears of the people at large.

[Sidenote: (3) The Control by Public Opinion.]

A third reason why power tends to pa.s.s away from the House is the greater control exerted in political affairs by public opinion, in consequence of the rapid means of disseminating knowledge and of forming and expressing a judgment. Whatever may be the importance of the editorial columns of the daily press in creating, or giving voice to, the general sentiment--and there is reason to suppose that editorials are of less consequence in both respects than they were formerly--it is certainly clear that the multiplication of cheap newspapers has made it possible for vastly larger numbers of men to become rapidly acquainted with current events; while the post and telegraph, and the habit of organisation, have made it much more easy for them to express their views. A debate, a vote, or a scene, that occurs in Parliament late at night is brought home to the whole country at breakfast the next morning, and prominent const.i.tuents, clubs, committees and the like, can praise or censure, encourage or admonish, their member for his vote before the next sitting of the House. Rousseau's charge that the English were free only at the moment of electing a Parliament, and then were in bondage during the whole of its term, was by no means really true when he wrote it, and is far less true to-day. It is for this reason that there has ceased to be any clamour for annual Parliaments, almost the only one of the famous six points in the People's Charter that has not been substantially achieved.[425:1] Parliaments have not grown shorter.

On the contrary, in the twenty years from 1832 to 1852, when the cry of the Chartists was heard, the average duration of Parliaments was four years, and since the extension of the suffrage in 1868 they have averaged four years and three-quarters.

[Sidenote: Its Manifestations.]

The pa.s.sing of political power from the House of Commons to the people is shown by many unmistakable signs, and by none more clearly than by the frequent reference in Parliament itself to the opinions of the "man in the street." He is said to fear this, or be shocked by that, or expect the other; and the House is supposed to pay some regard to his views, not because he is peculiarly gifted with knowledge, experience, or wisdom, in greater measure than the members themselves. Far from it.

He is cited as a specimen of average humanity; the person to whom Carlyle referred when he spoke of modern Parliaments with twenty-seven millions, mostly fools, listening to them.[425:2] The members of the House are supposed to heed him because they are his representatives; for he is taken as a type of the voter of fair intelligence. In fact he is the personification of what is believed to be outside opinion.

[Sidenote: The Doctrine of Mandate.]

Another sign of the times is found in the doctrine, now sanctioned by the highest authority, that Parliament cannot legislate on a new question of vital importance without a mandate from the nation. The theory that the individual representative is a mere delegate of his const.i.tuents, so that he is bound to resign and submit to reelection if he changes his views, has long been a subject of discussion; but the idea that Parliament as a whole exercises a delegated authority in the sense that it is morally restrained from dealing with questions that have not been laid before the people at the preceding general election would formerly have been regarded as a dangerous political heresy. Yet during the recent agitation in regard to fiscal policy, Mr. Balfour, while repudiating the suggestion that the existing Parliament, having been elected on the single issue of the South African War, ought to be dissolved when peace was made,[426:1] refused to grant time for a debate on free food, on the ground that it would be const.i.tutionally improper for Parliament to act on the question until it had been submitted to the people at a general election,[426:2] and that it would be unwise for the House to discuss a subject on which it could not act.[426:3]

Based upon a similar principle is the claim reiterated by the Opposition during the latter part of Mr. Balfour's administration, that, although supported by a majority in the House of Commons, he ought to resign, because a long series of by-elections had shown that he had lost the confidence of the country. His retention of office under those conditions was said to be contrary to the spirit of the Const.i.tution;[426:4] and Mr. Balfour's resignation late in 1905, when Parliament was not in session, involved an acknowledgment, if not of the necessity, at least of the propriety, of withdrawing from office in such a case. Former cabinets have sometimes broken up on account of dissensions among their members, or the impossibility of maintaining an efficient government; but there has been no previous instance of a cabinet, supported by a majority in Parliament, which has resigned apparently in consequence of a change of popular sentiment.

[Sidenote: Waning Interest in Reports of Debates.]

But perhaps the most ominous sign that power is pa.s.sing away from the House is the slowly waning interest in parliamentary debates. In the eighteenth century the House strove to prevent the publication of its discussions. Now the debates are printed under a contract with the government, which provides that no speech shall be reported at less than one third of its actual length;[427:1] and most of the members like to appear in the newspapers as prominently as they can. But, if the desire of the members to be reported is still increasing, the eagerness of the public to read what they say is less keen. Men who are thoroughly familiar with the reporters' gallery tell us that the demand for long reports of speeches in Parliament has declined, and that editors find it for their interest to cut them down, often subst.i.tuting for the remarks of the members themselves descriptive sketches of what took place.[427:2] One cause of this is, no doubt, the length of the debates, and the number of minor speakers taking part, which tends naturally to dull the popular craving to read them. Then there is the fact that Parliament is no longer the only place where the party leaders make notable speeches. In short, the predominance of the House of Commons as the great forum for the discussion of public questions has been undermined by the rise and growth of the platform.

[Sidenote: History of the Platform.]

After a long slumber the habit of speaking at public meetings revived about the middle of the eighteenth century;[428:1] and a little later it was taken up, in connection with the early political a.s.sociations, as a systematic means of agitation in the hope of bringing pressure to bear upon Parliament. At an early time leaders of the party in opposition were present; but after the outbreak of the French Revolution public meetings came to be used mainly by the working cla.s.ses, and were regarded as seditious. Men who took part in them were prosecuted, and acts were pa.s.sed to suppress them. These were so effective that by the opening of the next century political meetings had ceased to be held; except at elections, when some of the candidates for Parliament made speeches to their const.i.tuents. The repressive statutes were, however, temporary, and, although they were reenacted more than once, the meetings revived during the intervals of freedom. The last of these special statutes, one of the famous Six Acts of 1819, expired in 1825, and from that time the platform entered upon a fresh career, marked by three new features: the partic.i.p.ation of all cla.s.ses; the organised effort to bring about a definite political change by a legitimate creation of public opinion; and the growing use of public speaking by parliamentary leaders as a regular engine of party warfare. Moreover, the influence of the platform was much enlarged by the practice, which began shortly before that time, of reporting the meetings and speeches at considerable length in the provincial press.

[Sidenote: The Platform and Popular Movements for Reform.]

The first movement at this period in which the platform played a leading part was conducted by the Catholic a.s.sociation in Ireland, and ended in the removal of Catholic disabilities by the Act of 1829. But far more important examples of the use of public meetings are to be found in England. Throughout the agitation that accompanied the pa.s.sage of the Reform Act of 1832, public meetings were innumerable, and the platform was raised to a dignity and influence much greater than ever before. In fact its position as a recognised power in English public life began at that time. Its rapid advance in good repute was much helped by the fact that during the struggle for reform it was used mainly to strengthen the hands of the ministry; but this was not yet its characteristic function.

For the next score of years it was chiefly employed in attempts to force upon the attention of Parliament, by popular agitation, measures which did not otherwise receive serious consideration. Two efforts of the kind are especially noteworthy. One of them, that of the Anti-Corn-Law League, by the completeness of its organisation, by the cohesion and eloquence of its leaders, by confining its attention to one point, and by good fortune, succeeded in accomplishing its object. The other, that of the Chartists, lacking these advantages, failed; and although most of the demands of the Chartists were afterward obtained, that was the result not of their endeavours, but of other causes.

[Sidenote: The Platform and the Ministers.]

Meanwhile the platform was used more and more freely by the parliamentary leaders, but this came gradually. Pitt spoke only in the House of Commons; and in fact until a few years before the Reform Bill almost no minister, except Canning, made political speeches outside, and his were addressed mainly to his own const.i.tuents. In 1823, however, he delivered a speech at Plymouth, in which for the first time a statement about foreign policy was made by a minister in public, and five years later the change in the government's policy about Catholic disabilities was announced at a banquet. With the reform movement the ministers began to take the public a little more into their confidence. At the general election of 1831, Lord John Russell made the first public speech intended as an election cry,[429:1] and aroused an echo at meetings throughout the land. In the same year Lord Grey talked about the bill at the Lord Mayor's dinner, a festivity that became in after years a regular occasion for announcements of government policy. From that time the use of the platform grew rapidly in favour with the cabinet. In 1834 Lord Brougham made the unfortunate series of harangues in Scotland that wrecked his political career. A little later Lord Melbourne explained his own dismissal in a public speech; and Peel, on taking office, declared his policy in an address to his const.i.tuents. So important a matter, indeed, did the platform become in public life, that Lord Melbourne, referring to the performances of Brougham and O'Connell, spoke of the vacation as a trying time.[430:1] Thereafter the platform was constantly used both by ministers and leaders of the Opposition to bring public opinion to their side.

As usual in English politics, practice outran theory; for so late as 1886 Mr. Gladstone, in answer to a remonstrance from the Queen, felt it necessary to excuse himself for making speeches outside of his const.i.tuency, on the ground that in doing so he was merely following the example of the Conservatives.[430:2] Yet in 1879 he had set the nation ablaze by his Midlothian campaign; and although his orations there were delivered as a candidate for the seat, they were, and must have been intended to be, published by the newspapers all over the country.[430:3]

It was, in fact, at this very time that Lord Hartington spoke of the far greater interest taken in public speeches than in debates in Parliament.[430:4] Not that the platform became at once of especial value to the party leaders. On the contrary, it was at first used much more frequently by the Anti-Corn-Law League, the Chartists and others.

But since the introduction of something very near manhood suffrage, which began in 1868, great popular movements, unconnected with party politics, have become well-nigh impossible. In a real democracy there is little use in trying to overawe the government by a display of physical force, and hence an agitation has for its natural object the winning of votes. But the House of Commons has now been brought so fully into accord with the ma.s.ses of the people that any strong popular sentiment is certain to find immediate expression there. Once in the House it is on the edge of a whirlpool, for even if it originates quite outside of the existing parties, and gives rise, at first, to a new political group, it can hardly fail, as it gathers headway, to be drawn into the current of one of the two great parties, and find a place in their programme. Now in any question connected with party politics the highest interest attaches to the speeches of the party leaders, both because they are the standard bearers in the fight, and because they are the men who have power, or at the next turn of the wheel will have power, to give effect to their opinions.

[Sidenote: Public Speaking now Universal.]

The platform has thus had a perfectly natural evolution. So long as elections to the House of Commons were controlled by a small number of persons, public speaking could be effective only occasionally, when popular feeling could be deeply stirred over some grievance; and it was employed chiefly by outsiders in an effort to force the hands of Parliament. This was in part true even after 1832. But when the suffrage was more widely extended in 1868, so that elections depended upon the good-will of the ma.s.ses, it became necessary for any one with political aspirations to reach the public at large, and the most obvious means of so doing was from the platform. Speeches by candidates at elections became universal, and in order not to let the flame of loyalty burn low, it has been increasingly common to fan it at other times, by the talking of members to their const.i.tuents, and still more by addresses to the whole community on the part of leaders of national reputation. Public speaking has, therefore, become constant, without regard to the existence of any issue of unusual prominence. James Russell Lowell long ago made a remark to the effect that democracy is government by declamation, and certainly household suffrage has loosened the tongues of public men. An observer at the present day is struck by the fluency of Englishmen upon their feet, and by the free use of humour as a means of emphasis, instead of the sonorous phrases formerly styled oratory.

[Sidenote: The Platform has Increased the Influence of Party Leaders.]

It has now become a settled custom for the cabinet ministers and the leaders of the parliamentary Opposition to make a business of speaking during the late autumn and the spring recess; and the habit tends to magnify their power, for they are the only persons who have fully the ear of the public. Except for a few important utterances, the debates in Parliament are not very widely read; editorials in the press are read solely by members of one political faith; the remarks of private members to their const.i.tuents are published only in the local papers; but public speeches by the chief ministers, and to a less extent those by the princ.i.p.al leaders of the Opposition, are printed at great length by the newspapers of both parties, and are read everywhere.[432:1]

Moreover, the platform gives a greater freedom than the floor of the House. The ministers do not want to bring before Parliament a policy they are not immediately prepared to push through, nor would it be easy to find time amid the business of a session to do so. It is not altogether an accident, it is rather a sign of the times, that Mr.

Chamberlain broached his plan of preferential tariffs, not in Parliament, but at a public meeting in Birmingham. It was, indeed, a strange thing to see an ardent discussion on a most important question conducted in public meetings and in the press, while the ministers were striving to prevent debate upon it in the House of Commons. It was a mark of the limitation which the course of events has placed upon Parliament. The platform has brought the ministers face to face with the people, and this has increased the political importance of both. Not only is the electorate the ultimate arbiter in political matters, but the platform has in some degree supplanted the House as the forum where public questions are discussed.

[Sidenote: Its Benefits.]

Frequent public addresses by the men in whom the whole responsibility for the conduct of national affairs is concentrated, and by those who will be responsible when the next change of ministry occurs, cannot fail to educate the voters, and quicken their interest in all the political issues of the day. Moreover, the process is not confined to the intermittent periods of election, but goes on all the time; and although the practice, brought into vogue by the Anti-Corn-Law League, of joint debates at public meetings has not taken permanent root in England, the same result is reached in another way, because the party leaders answer one another's speeches from different platforms, and if the listeners are not identical, the public reads both arguments. Sir Henry Maine spoke of the tendency to look upon politics as a "deeply interesting game, a never-ending cricket-match between Blue and Yellow";[433:1] and the fact that this aspect of the matter is more marked in England than anywhere else makes English politics the most interesting, and the most easy to follow, in the world. The rulers of the country, and those who both have been and will be her rulers, fight at close range across a table for six months of the year, and during the rest of the time they carry on the ceaseless war by public speaking. As in the Athenian democracy, the citizens witness a constant struggle among rival statesmen for supremacy, but in England they are merely spectators until a general election summons them to give their verdict. One can hardly conceive of a system better calculated to stimulate interest in politics without instability in the government.

[Sidenote: Its Perils.]

But if the platform educates the voter, it has its dangers also.

Bismarck is reported to have said that the qualities of the orator are not only unlike, but incompatible with, those of the statesman; and certainly the continual need of taking the public into one's confidence is hard to reconcile with the execution of far-reaching plans for the national welfare, for until the results are in sight, these cannot be made intelligible to the ma.s.s of the people. The English statesman is called upon at all times to show his hand, at the risk of seeming disingenuous or secretive if he does not do so. His whole policy is a.n.a.lysed and criticised; the seeds he plants are dug up prematurely to see if they are sprouting. Hence he is under a strong temptation to take a stand that will win immediately popular approval. In short, he lives in a gla.s.s house, which is likely to mean a very respectable but rather superficial life.

Moreover, in the custom of speaking from the platform there lurks a danger to the system of cabinet government; for that system is based upon the principle that the initiative in public policy rests with the ministers, and the main issue decided at a general election is whether the cabinet shall remain in power. Now ministers have not always been in the habit of arranging what shall be said upon the platform with the same care as what measures shall be brought before Parliament. But in view of the present importance of the platform it is obvious that if the cabinet system is to continue, the ministers must present a unanimous front to the public as well as to Parliament; and this consideration leads to a study of the function of party in the English political system.

FOOTNOTES:

[425:1] The six points were: universal suffrage, annual Parliaments, equal electoral districts, abolition of property qualification, vote by ballot, and payment of members. Of all these demands annual Parliaments and payment of members alone have not been substantially attained.

[425:2] "Latter Day Pamphlets: The Stump Orator," No. 5.

[426:1] _E.g._ Hans. 4 Ser. Cx.x.xII., 1013-15; CXLI., 162.

[426:2] _Ibid._, Cx.x.xI., 679; CXLVI., 987-89.

[426:3] _Ibid._, CXLI., 163; CXLV., 622, 627; CXLVI., 496.

[426:4] _Ibid._, Cx.x.xII., 1005, 1019; CXLI., 122-23, 180-82.

[427:1] Cabinet ministers and the leaders of the Opposition are reported in full in the Parliamentary Debates, and other members usually at about two-thirds length. Macdonagh's "Book of Parliament" contains an interesting chapter on "The Reporters' Gallery."

[427:2] Macdonagh, 315. And see an article by Alfred Kinnear, and an answer by A. P. Nicholson in the _Contemporary Review_ for March and April, 1905, Lx.x.xVII., 369, 577.

[428:1] The best work on this subject is Jephson's "The Platform: Its Rise and Progress."

[429:1] Jephson, II., 65.

[430:1] Walpole, "Life of Lord John Russell," I., 248.

[430:2] Morley, "Life of Gladstone," III., 344.

[430:3] Mr. Lecky expressed a common opinion in the introduction to the second edition of his "Democracy and Liberty" (p. liii.), where he spoke of Mr. Gladstone as "the first English minister who was accustomed, on a large scale, to bring his policy in great meetings directly before the people," adding that he "completely discarded the old tradition that a leading minister or ex-minister should confine himself almost exclusively to Parliamentary utterances and should only on rare occasions address the public outside." Mr. Gladstone's power was, indeed, due quite as much to the effect of his public speeches as to his influence over the House of Commons.

[430:4] Quoted by Jephson, II., 391.

[432:1] Mr. Kinnear in the _Contemporary Review_ for March, 1905, says that the demand by newspapers for public speeches by leading statesmen has declined. They would probably have more readers, though less hearers, if they were neither so long nor so frequent.

[433:1] "Popular Government," 149.