TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE NEW SPEAKER.
ON Wednesday Mr. Gully became Speaker of the House of Commons. Though he is not our choice, and though we should have preferred Mr. Courtney as a man marked out by nature for presiding over a de- liberative Assembly, and failing him, Sir Matthew White Ridley, as a Member of very great experience, and endowed with an intimate knowledge of the temper and traditions of the House of Commons, it is possible that the new occupant of the Chair may be able to do and say all that is required of him. It is clear that he has many of the gifts that go to make up the ideal Speaker. In the first place, he is a man of stately appearance, and will look and act the part of Speaker to perfection. To the outside public this may seem but a minor qualification, but all who know the House of Commons from inside seem convinced that, to be a success, a Speaker must be an ornamental personage.
The Speaker is the servant of the House, and the House, as a body corporate, seems as anxious to get a servant with a good appearance as any major-domo when he is selecting the footman who goes out with her ladyship's carriage. The House of Lords, as far as we know, is never perturbed about the looks of the Chancellor ; but then perhaps the Lords are like the Frenchman who, when scolded for a mesallianee, declared that he had blood sough for three. The House of Lords does not mind a Chancellor who drops his " h's "—it once had a Chan- cellor of that kind—because it feels its native stores of dignity and correct pronunciation are inexhaustible. The Commons, on the other hand, like to have a model in the Chair. Be that as it may, the fact remains that even the nost strenuous Radical would be aghast at the notion of putting an insignificant man in the Chair. In yet another respect Mr. Gully comes up to the ideal standard prescribed for Speakers. He has a good voice and a considerable gift of ready eloquence. He is understood to possess the power of saying the right thing without twenty-four hours' reflection. This is a necessary gift for the Speaker. Every now and again some perplexing question arises, in which the wounded vanity of individual Members and harsh recriminations as to matters of fact are mixed up with the interpretation of a highly technical code of procedure. On such occasions the House appeals to the Speaker as boys appeal to the head of the school or the captain of the eleven. He has to set matters straight by a few quiet words, which will act as a solvent for a quarrel in which there are no real merits, and where every one is more or less in the wrong. If a Speaker is not ready with his tongue, he will let the House boil over, instead of getting it off the boil. Another important qualification for the Speaker is that of general popularity. His should be a personality which men naturally find pleasant. The Speaker, in a word, should have charm, and should be able to make Members feel that they like him for himself, and without knowing exactly why. He should be a man about whom the phrase comes naturally, " I am sure you would like him if you knew him." All Mr. Gully's friends seem to agree in ascribing to him this indefinite charm of friendliness. Some, indeed, declare that he possesses it in so high a degree that if he remains in the Chair for a year, the Opposition will be unable, and indeed unwilling, to carry out their threat of superseding him directly they get a majority of the House.
But though Mr. Gully has a fine presence and a gift of easy eloquence, and naturally draws men to him, there are other and equally important gifts which be is with- out. He cannot be said to have a large and wide ex- perience of the House of Commons and its ways. It is true that he has been in the House nine years, and it is also true that this is ample time for gaining experience of the House, provided that a man makes use of his opportunities. But, by all accounts, Mr. Gully has never laid himself out to know the House of Commons. He is in no sort of sense a typical House of Commons man. So little of a House of Commons man is he, indeed, that, till within a week or so of his election, he was not known by sight either to the Leader of the Opposition or to Mr. Cham- berlain. This is conclusive proof that Mr. Gully has not hitherto identified himself with the House,—made it his home. Not to be known by the Leader of the Opposition, clearly argues Mr. Gully to have very little Parliamentary experience. Here is what Mr. Balfour stated as to Mr. Gully's active Parliamentary record :—" He is wholly unknown to us in any capacity connected with the work of this House. He has never, so far as I am aware,. opened his lips in our debates ; he has never, so far as I know, served on a Private Bill Committee ; he has never, so far as I know, served on a Select Committee ; he has never, so far as I know, attended on a Grand Committee.' That was, we believe, an overstatement, but it was very near the truth, and as familiarity with the House in. all its moods and phases is of enormous importance t,o- a Speaker, it is impossible to treat Mr. Gully's election as an ideal choice. The House is like one of those• tidal estuaries in which the currents and shoals are- continually chopping and changing. The men who are- perpetually on the water get, after many years of watching, a sort of instinct about the river, and know, as they say, every bubble on it. It is these men who are the safe pilots, not the occasional navigator, however well provided with charts and " directions." No doubt, Mr.. Gully is an able man, and will in time learn his river, but it is doubtful whether the instinctive feeling as to what the House means and wants can be got up at short notice. There is yet another quality which is indispensable for a. Speaker,—the quality of authority. Whether Mr. Gully possesses this, and will be able to use it we have no means of knowing, but we are sure that without it a Speaker must fail. The Speaker should be a friend to every Member of the House, but should also be capable of exercising his authority, and of showing his supremacy in the clearest and most unmistakable manner. On occasion he should be able and willing to tell a Member to " come to heel " as if he were an insubordinate fox-terrier. A story toll of Mr. Peel and Mr. Parnell will illustrate what we mean. On a certain occasion the Speaker had to call Mr. Parnell to order with some show of severity. After the incident, Mr. Parnell passed the Speaker's Chair and said, apparently without specially meaning to be rude, "I think, Mr. Speaker, you were rather too hard on me just now." " How dare you, how dare you say that to me," was the instant reply. This Olympian air may seeinta little absurd outside the House, but we are certain that it must be maintained by any one who desires to preside wisely and well over the Commons. The Speaker must not allow the slightest criticism of this kind on his acts. He must be patient to hear every expostulation put to him in due form, but he must never tolerate any- thing which derogates from his dignity. Very possibly Mr. Gully has, or will be able to develop, this Olympian way of treating those who do not show the respectful consideration due to his great office. His sweetness of temper and general friendliness of disposition are no bars. The late Lord Bowen carried this honeyed tempera.. ment almost too far, yet on the Bench, and when occasion- offered, he could show himself the most terrific upholder of judicial dignity. They tell in the Temple how an old Oxford friend went to the station as High Sheriff to meet Lord Justice Bowen, who was going circuit. The unthinking, or perhaps slightly impudent, friend greeted the Judge hat on head, with an attempt to shake hands, and with a casual and a warm "How d'ye do, Bowen?" " You forget yourself, Sir. Take off your hat, and re- member that you are speaking to one of her Majesty's Judges of Assize," was the blow from the shoulder which answered the man who had opined that "Good old Bowen wouldn't want any nonsense." It is quite possible, then, that Mr. Gully may be as capable as Mr. Peel of making the individual Member know his place if he presumes to treat the Speaker with any lack of decorum. But though the Speaker must have the gift of authority, he should of course never overdo his authoritativeness. To the House as a whole he should always play the part of the trusted servant, never of the master. The Members in the aggregate are his masters. The Speaker who forgets this, or fails to act upon it, is certain to come to grief. Mr. Peel never forgot it. He made the individual Member acknowledge his authority, but he in turn never forgot to acknowledge most clearly and implicitly the authority of the House. Hence, while the Members obeyed Mr. Peel, they felt that he was all the time their loyal servant. This sounds like a metaphysical subtlety, a mere matter of form ; but it is a matter of substance. It is the men who are able to convey this impression of rule through service, who successfully sway the House of Commons. Mr. Peel always showed by word and deed that the House was master, and he but its humble servant. The last of the qualities required by a Speaker which we have space to enumerate, is that of imagination. We doubt if any Speaker could succeed who had not imagina- tion, because without it he could not assume that double attitude of master and servant which we have just described, but which, nevertheless, must be assumed by a successful Speaker. The Speaker must be able, as it were, to call into existence in his mind the Genius of the House of Commons, and to feel that to some extent the spirit of the aggregate of the Members is incarnate in him. If he is the prosaic man who says " Stuff ! " when he is asked to look upon himself as the House of Commons personified, he will not make a good Speaker. He will be unable to protect in his person the dignity of the august body over which he presides. He will not like to treat attacks upon himself as attacks on the dignity of the House, and so attacks which must be punished, however trivial and absurd. He will want to pass over remarks like that made by Mr. Parnell with silence and indifference. He will be treating impertinents with a forgiving air when he ought to be gravely declaring that the House has been insulted in the person of its humble servant. Fortunately, the gift of an imagination sufficient for this purpose is not very rare, and it is therefore by no means improbable that Mr. Gully possesses it. Besides, the wig and robes, the mace, and the train-bearers, enormously help its development and stimulate its growth. Time, and time only, can show whether Mr. Gully has authority and imagination. If he has, the lack of experience and the want of knowledge of the House may not matter so much as one would expect. Let us hope they will not. Now that he is Speaker, we most earnestly hope that he will receive the maximum of support from all sides of the House. He is fortunate in having Mr. Balfour as Leader of the Opposition. He is the most loyal of mankind, and may be trusted to do nothing to embarrass Mr. Gully, or to show that the House made a bad choice in choosing him as Speaker.
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