Mr. Vernon Harcourt made a clever speech on Tuesday to
his .constituents at Oxford against Over-legislation. Some people declare, he said, that Parliament does not do enough, but his own -opinion is that it does a great deal too much. The members meddle too much with the Departments, like a fussy master of the house with his servants ; they legislate too much, as, for example, giving power to the First Commissioner of Works to prevent bathers in the Serpentine from using soap ; they introduce bills to compel railway companies to have feet-warmers ; they will soon be compelling everybody to wear flannel night-caps. That is all very well and amusing, and to some degree true, but is it, on the whole, a fact, that " fussy " legislation finds much favour with the House ? Did the feet-warmer Bill pass, or was it only introduced? Did anybody suppose, when power was given to Mr. Ayrton to regulate the bathing in the Serpentine, that he would concentrate his administrative genius on the detail of soap or no soap? Is the legislation in regard to women and Trades' Unions of a liberating or an interfering class? On the whole, we suspect Mr. Harcourt has, as is not uncommon with him, done scant justice to the House, in order to do something more than justice to himself.
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