OUR HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Our House of Commons. By Alfred Kinnear. (W. Blackwood and Sons. 3s. 6d.)—A great deal both of entertainment and of information is peeked into this book, although its author is perhaps too much inclined to look at the proceedings, and still more the personages, of Parliament from the professionally comic or "Toby, M.P.," standpoint. It may be " smart " to tell us that "' My Bill is on the table, my bike is at the door,' forms the burden of Mr. Balfour's thoughts when the spring is budding and the House is sitting" and that "Mr. Chaplin is really too much afraid of the House of Commons to be iosolent." But a great deal of this sort of thing is apt to become tiresome and even "cheap." On the other hand, while Mr. Kinnear deals with the light side of Parliament in a light style
— indeed, he devotes one section of it expressly to that light side — he treats of the serious aspects of the institution as it at present exists as well. In a series of commendably short chapters, he tells all that is really worth telling, or perhaps even knowing, about the lobby, the Speaker, "whipping," the arts of getting into Parliament and attaining to the woulsack and the Premiership. The other section of the book deals with the gaieties, frivolities, and " personalia " of Parliament, treating of tea, marriage, and the like. Some of the chapters in it, such as those on Mr. Healy and "The Real Lord Salisbury," deserve at least a glance. Mr. Kinnear does not burden his book with much weightier " philosophy " than this :—" The whole outcome of the House of Commons, regarded seriously, is that the work of the country is in the hands of a dozen men, and its legislation is guided by about twenty-four others." In spite—perhaps in virtue—of its shortcomings, this book will be read and enjoyed.
Previous page
