THE HOUSE OF COMMONS MADE TO WORK.
WE have received a pamphlet, entitled " Practical Suggestions for the Internal Reform of the House of Commons, by a Parliamen- tary Secretary."* By Internal Reform is meant a better manner of conducting the business of the House. The object of the writeris to suggest a plan by which the affairs of the .country may be deli berated and decided upon witlifar more efficiency than at present7– by which much time may be saved to all parties, and that whichls • Published by F. C. Watley.
effected may be accomplished in a superior manner. It is well known, that at present the real business of the country is done by a small portion of the House : this band of active and industrious persons are overwhelmed by a multitude of calls upon their atten- tion; • and consequently, when details are to be looked to (awl, in spite of what has been said of late, principles lie in details, and an act of Parliament is a blessing or a curse according to its details), minutia) are neglected, blundered, and botched. The legislation of the House of Commons has been actually exposed to the ridicule of the whole country,-a circum- stance of serious import, beyond the inconvenience, not small, of solemnly enacting the performance of impracticable absurdities, or of assiduously particularizing in the same act two contradictory elause3.
The " Parliamentary Secretary" would divide the House into Sessional Committees, of about forty or fifty members each-in number ten-to which departments should be respectively as- signed; such as Revenue, Law, Home and Foreign Committees, to whom all bills and propositions should be in limine referred to be examined and reported upon. There is no doubt that forty or fifty educated men are as well qualified to examine a measure as five hundred : they are better qualified-and if they were con- stantly occupied on the same branch of legislation, they would soon acquire a familiarity with its details, and a method of examining suggestions, that would render their advice invaluable. By this scheme, ten measures would receive a more regular sifting in the same evening than one does now, and the business of the country be accelerated tenfold. It is suggested, that the House assemble on alternate nights, and the Committees in the intervals. This would be a vast relief to members who are now worked to death, and would more equally share the burden among men who now throw it off altogether : in addition to which, be it always remem- bered, the business would be ten times as speedily done, and how many fold better it is impossible to say. For the details of the plan, we must refer to the pamphlet itself. Sir ROBERT PEEL, feeling the oppressiveness of the present system, has given notice of a motion, to be made next week, for a Select Committee to consider the best mode of regulating the presentation of petitions. The best mode of presenting petitions that may be discovered, will be but a slight relief: let the principle of the division of labour be extensively carried into effect, and petitions may be presented in the existing or any other manner without inconvenience.
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