Readers of the daily newspapers may have observed an increased
anxiety on the part of Members of Parliament to announce that on certain divi- sions they "paired off" with some other Members of opposite opinions. Notices, too, are becoming frequent, that similar arrangements are to hold for "the remainder of the session." It may be as well that the electoral body should know that these modes of shirking duty and escaping respon- sibility begin to assume the form and regularity of a system. When the "pair" is mad; the written intimation which appears in the newspapers, instead of being sent, as is generally supposed, to the newspapers by one or other of the contracting absentees, is handed to an officer of the House, who makes out a copy for each of the daily newspapers and transmits the documents to the respective offices. This is still lazier OIL the proxy system of the House of Lords ; because in the latter case, each ofthe noble absentees must at the least be at the trouble to sign his name to his paper vote, while in the case of the industrious Commoners only one of the two need be at the trouble of putting pen to paper—the officer of the House will do the rest.
Among the num area which the division-lists disclose just as the session draws to an end, is the name of Mr. Charles Hindley. After a length- ened tour in the East, that gentleman had arranged for his return to Lon- don in time to take charge of his Sunday Trading Prevention Bill ; but he arrived an hour too late, the morning sitting not having been taken into account.
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