The movement towards democracy is world-wide to-day, and the political constitutions of the West are desired with fervour in the East.
For generations there has been agitation in Russia for representative government, and men and women—in countless numbers—have sacrificed wealth, reputation, liberty, and life itself in the cause of political freedom. On the establishment in 1906 of the Duma, a national chamber of elected members, there was general rejoicing, because it seemed that, at length, autocracy was to give place to representative government. But the hopes of the political reformers were short lived. The Duma still exists, but its powers were closely restricted in 1907, and the franchise has been narrowed, to secure an overwhelming preponderance of the wealthy, so that it is altogether misleading to regard it as a popular assembly.
In Egypt and in India the Nationalist movements are directed to self-government, and are led by men who have, in most cases, spent some years at an English University, or have been trained at the English Bar. Residence in England, and a close study of British politics make the educated Indian anxious for political rights in his own country, similar to those that are given to him in Great Britain. In England the Indian has all the political rights of a British subject. He can vote for a member of Parliament, he can even be a member of the House of Commons. On two occasions in recent years, an Indian has been elected to Parliament: Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji sat as Liberal M.P. for Finsbury, 1892-5; Sir M.M. Bhownagree as a Conservative for Bethnal Green, 1895-1906. Back in his native land, the Indian finds that he belongs to a subject race, and that the British garrison will neither admit him to social equality, nor permit him the right of legislation. Hence with eyes directed to Western forms of government, the Indian is discontented with the bureaucracy that rules his land, and disaffected from the Imperial power. But so many are the nations in India, and so poverty-stricken is the great multitude of its peasantry that the Nationalist movement can touch but the fringe of the population, and the millions of India live patiently and contentedly under the British Crown. Nevertheless, the national movement grows steadily in numbers and in influence, for it is difficult for those who, politically minded, have once known political freedom, to resign themselves to political subjection.
In Egypt the Nationalist movement is naturally smaller and more concentrated than in India and the racial divisions hinder its unity. Egypt is nominally under the suzerainty of Turkey, though occupied by Great Britain, and now that Turkey has set up a Constitution and a Parliament, patriotic Egyptian politicians are impatient at the blocking out by the British authorities of every proposal for self-government.
As in India, so in Egypt: it is the men of education who are responsible for the Nationalist movement. And in both countries it is the desire to experiment in representative government, to test the constitutional forms in common use in the West, and to practise the responsibilities of citizenship, that stimulates the movement. The unwillingness of the British Government to gratify this desire explains the hostility to British rule in India and Egypt.
Japan received a Constitution from the Emperor in 1890, and in 1891 its Diet was formally opened with great national enthusiasm. It is a two-chamber Parliament—a Council of nobles, and a popularly elected assembly—and only in the last few years have the business men given their attention to it. Although the Cabinet is influenced by Japanese public opinion, it is not directly responsible to the Diet, but is the Ministry of the Mikado. The resolution of the Japanese statesmen of forty years ago to make Japan a world-power made Constitutional Government, in their eyes, a necessity for the nation.
In Europe, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark all possess democratic constitutions, and only the removal of sex disabilities in the latter two is needed to achieve complete adult suffrage. Finland established complete democracy nine years ago, and, with equal electoral districts, complete adult suffrage, and the free election of women equally with men to its Diet, is a model democratic state. But the liberties of Finland are gravely threatened by the Russian Government, and there is no security for the Finns that their excellent self-government will be preserved. In Germany, with universal manhood suffrage, the struggle is to make the Government responsible to the elected Reichstag.
The British self-governing Colonies show a tendency of democracy to federate. The Australian Colonies are federated into a Commonwealth, and their example has been followed by the South African Colonies. New Zealand and Australia are at one in their franchise, which allows no barrier of sex; but South Africa still restricts the vote to males. In Australia the working class are in power, and the Commonwealth Prime Minister is a Labour representative. There is no willingness to grant political rights to those who are not of European race, either in South Africa or in Australia; and the universal republic dreamed of by eighteenth century democrats, a republic which should know no racial or "colour" bar, is not in the vision of the modern colonial statesmen of democracy, who are frankly exclusive. Only in New Zealand does a native race elect its own members to Parliament—and four Maori M.P.'s are returned.
Experience has proved that democratic and republican forms of government are no guarantee that the nation possesses political liberty.
Mexico, nominally a republic under President Diaz, was in reality a military autocracy of the severest kind. The South American Republics are merely unstable monarchies, at the mercy of men who can manipulate the political machinery and get control of the army.
It is too early yet to decide whether the constitutional form of government set up in Turkey in 1908, or the republic created on the abolition of monarchy in Portugal in 1910, mark national movements to democracy. In neither country is there evidence that general political freedom has been the goal of the successful revolutionist, or that the people have obtained any considerable measure of political power or civil liberty. Ambitious and unscrupulous men can make full use of republican and democratic forms to gain political mastery over their less cunning fellows, and no machinery of government has ever yet been devised that will safeguard the weak and the foolish from the authority of the strong and the capable.
Those who put their trust in theories of popular sovereignty, and urge the referendum and initiative as the surer instruments of democracy than Parliamentary representation, may recall that a popular plebiscite organised by Napoleon in 1802 conferred on him the Consulate for life; that Louis Napoleon was made President of the French Republic in 1848 by a popular vote, obtained a new constitution by a plebiscite in 1851, and a year later arranged another plebiscite which declared him hereditary Emperor, Napoleon III. France, where naturally Rousseau's theories have made the deepest impression, has since the Revolution gloried in the right of the "sovereign people" to overthrow the government, and its elected representatives have been alternately at the mercy of dictators and social revolutionists.
On the whole, the stability of the British Government, rooted in the main on the traditional belief in the representation of the electorate, would seem to make more surely for national progress and wider political liberty than the alternation of revolution and reaction which France has known in the last hundred and twenty years.
England has not been without its popular outbursts against what the American poet called "the never-ending audacity of elected persons," but these outbursts are commonly accepted as manifestations of intolerable conditions; and while the outbursts are repressed means are taken by Government to amend the conditions. When the Government fails to amend things, the House of Commons takes the matter up; and if the Commons neglect to do so, then the electors make it plain that amendment and reform are necessary by returning men to Parliament pledged to change matters, and by rejecting those who have failed to meet the situation.
The dangers that threaten democracy are obvious. Universal adult suffrage, short Parliaments, proportional representation, equal electoral districts, second ballots—none of these things can insure democracy against corruption. For a government which rests on the will of a people—a will expressed by the election of representatives—is inevitably exposed to all the evils attendant on the unruly wills and affections of the average man.
The orator can play upon the feelings of the crowd, and sway multitudes against a better judgment; and he has greater chance of working mischief when a referendum or other direct instrument of democracy is in vogue than he has when government is by elected representatives. For the party system, itself open to plenty of criticism, constantly defeats the orator by the superior power of organisation. Hence it frequently happens at Parliamentary elections that a candidate whose meetings are enthusiastic and well attended fails lamentably at the poll. His followers are a crowd; they are not a party. They do not know each other, and they have not the confidence that comes of membership in a large society.
If the orator is a menace to the wise decisions of the people by a referendum, the party organiser and political "boss" can easily be a curse to representative government on party lines. By all manner of unholy devices he can secure votes for his candidate and his party, and he has raised (or lowered) the simple business of getting the people to choose their representative into the art of electioneering. The triumph of political principles by the election of persons to carry out those principles becomes of less importance than the successful working of the party machine, when the boss and the organiser are conspicuous. Patronage becomes the method for keeping the party in power, and the promise of rewards and spoils enables an opposition to defeat the Government and obtain office. To be outside the party is to lose all chance of sharing in the spoils, and to take an interest in politics means, under these circumstances, to expect some consideration in the distribution of honours.
The "spoils system" is notorious in America, but in England it has become practically impossible for a man to take any serious part in politics except by becoming part of the machine. An independent attitude means isolation. To belong to a party—Liberal, Unionist, or Labour—and to criticise its policy, or differ from its leaders, is resented as impertinence. The machine is master of the man. A troublesome and dangerous critic is commonly bought or silenced. He is given office in the Government, or rewarded with a legal appointment; perhaps made a peer if his tastes are in that direction. A critic who cannot command a considerable backing among the electorate will probably be driven out of public life. The disinterested activity in politics that puts the commonwealth before party gain is naturally discouraged by the party organisers.
Yet when public interest in national affairs sinks to the merely sporting instinct of "backing your candidate" at elections as a horse is backed at race meetings, and of "shouting for your party" as men shout for their favourite football team, or sinks still lower to the mercenary speculation of personal gain or loss on election results, then another danger comes in—the indifference of the average honest citizen to all politics, and the cynical disbelief in political honesty.
The warnings of John Stuart Mill against leaving politics to the politicians and against the professional position may be quoted:
"Representative institutions are of little value, and may be a mere instrument of tyranny or intrigue when the generality of electors are not sufficiently interested in their own government to give their vote; or, if they vote at all, do not bestow their suffrages on public grounds, but sell them for money, or vote at the beck of some one who has control over them, or whom for private reasons they desire to propitiate. Popular elections as thus practised, instead of a security against misgovernment, are but an additional wheel in its machinery."
Mill himself was a striking example of the entirely disinterested politician, who, caring a great deal more for principles than for party, finds little favour with the electors, and less with the party managers, and retires from politics to the relief of his fellows.
A general lack of interest in politics can prove fatal to democracy. The party managers, without the fear of the electorate before their eyes, will increase the number of salaried officials and strengthen their position by judicious appointments. Nominally, these inspectors and officers will be required for the public service, and the appointments will be justified on patriotic grounds. There will be little criticism in Parliament, because the party not in power will be anxious to create similar "jobs" when its own turn comes. Besides, as the public pays for these officials, there is no drain on the party funds; and this is a matter of congratulation to party managers, who are always anxious not to spend more than they can help on the political machinery.
But the horde of officials and inspectors will change democracy into bureaucracy, and the discovery is sometimes made too late that a land is ruled by permanent officials, and not by elected representatives. The elected representatives may sit and pass laws, but the bureaucracy which administers them will be the real authority.
It may be an entirely honest and efficient bureaucracy, as free from political partisanship as our British Civil Service and police-court magistracy are, but if it is admitted to be outside the jurisdiction of the House of Commons, and to be under no obedience to local councils, and if its powers involve a close inquisition into the lives of the people, and include the right to interfere daily with these lives, then bureaucracy and not democracy is the actual government.
A host of salaried political workers—agents, organisers, secretaries, etc.—will make popular representative government a mere matter of political rivalry, an affair of "ins and outs," and by this development of the party system will exclude from active politics all who are not loyal to the "machine," and are not strong enough to break it. But a host of public officers—inspectors, clerks, etc.—paid out of the public funds will do more than pervert representative government: they will make it subordinate to the permanent official class; and bureaucracy, once firmly in the saddle, is harder to get rid of than the absolutism of kings, or the rule of an aristocracy.
Yet a permanent Civil Service is better in every way in a democracy than a Civil Service which lives and dies with a political party, and is changed with the Cabinet.
On the whole, the best thing for democracy is that the paid workers in politics should be as few as possible, and the number of salaried state officials strictly limited. The fewer the paid political workers, the fewer people will be concerned to maintain the efficiency of the political machine, and the more freely will the electorate act in the choice of its representatives. The fewer the salaried officials of State, the less inspection and restriction, and the less encouragement to habits of submission in the people. Democracy must depend on a healthy, robust sense of personal responsibility in its citizens, and every increase in the inspectorate tends to diminish this personal responsibility, and to breed a "servile state" that will fall a willing prey to tyranny and bureaucracy.
Nevertheless, whilst in self-defence democracy will avoid increasing its officials, it will distinguish between officials and employees. It is bound to add to the number of its employees every year, as its municipal and imperial responsibilities grow steadily larger, and these employees, rightly regarded as public servants, cannot threaten to become our masters.
Still one more danger to democracy may be mentioned, and that is the notion that from the working class must necessarily come our best rulers.
"Rulers are not wise by reason of their number or their poverty, or their reception of a weekly wage instead of a monthly salary or yearly income. It is worse and more unpleasant and more dangerous to be ruled by many fools than by one fool, or a few fools. The tyranny of an ignorant and cowardly mob is a worse tyranny than the tyranny of an ignorant and cowardly clique or individual.
"Workers are not respectable or to be considered because they work more with their hands or feet than with their brains, but because the work they do is good. If it is not good work they do, they are as unprofitable as any other wasters. A plumber is not a useful or admirable creature because he plumbs (if he plumbs ignorantly or dishonestly, he is often either a manslayer or a murderer), but because he plumbs well, and saves the community from danger and damp, disease, and fire and water. Makers of useless machine-made ornaments are, however 'horny-handed,' really 'anti-social persons,' baneful to the community as far as their bad work goes; more baneful, possibly, than the consumers of these bad articles, quite as baneful as theentrepreneurswho employ them.
"The only good institutions are those that do good work; the only good work done is that which produces good results, whether they be direct, as the plough-man's, or navvy's, or sailor's; or indirect, as the policeman, or the schoolmaster, or the teacher of good art, or the writer of books that are worth reading. A man is no better or wiser than others by reason of his position or lack of position, but by reason of his stronger body, wiser head, better skill, greater endurance, keener courage."[89]
There it is. Democracy needs for its counsellors, legislators and ministers, strength, wisdom, skill, endurance and courage, and must get these qualities in whomsoever they are to be found. Democracy can afford the widest range of choice in the election of popular representatives, or it will never reach its full stature.
In the choice of its representatives, a democracy will do well to elect those who know the life of the working people, and who share its toils; just as it will do well to shun the mere talker, and to seek out for itself candidates for election rather than have candidates thrust upon its attention by some caucus in London. But the main thing is that it should first discern men and women of ability and of character and then elect them for its representatives, rejecting those, it may be of more dazzling qualities, who are unstable in mind and consumed with vanity. It would be well if the elected representative were always an inhabitant of the county or the borough, known to his neighbours, and of tested worth. True, the prophet is often without honour in his own country, and a constituency acts wisely in electing a representative of national repute. But to search for a man of wealth who will subsidise every club and charitable institution in the constituency, and to rejoice when such a candidate is procured from some political headquarters, is a wretched proceeding in a democratic state. The member who buys a constituency by his gifts will always feel entitled to sell his constituents should occasion arise.
Again, the delegate theory of representation can be a danger to democracy.
A Parliamentary representative is something better than a mechanical contrivance for registering the opinions of electors on certain subjects. Otherwise all Parliamentary debate is a mockery. A representative he is of the majority of electors, but he must act freely and with initiative. Often enough he may be constrained to vote, not as many of his constituents would prefer, but using his own judgment. Of course when the choice is between obedience to the party whip and the wishes of his constituents, and personal conviction is with the latter, then at all costs the decision should be to stand by his constituents, or popular representation is a delusion.
To-day the pressure is far greater from the party whips than from the constituents, especially when in so many cases election expenses are paid, in part at least, from the party funds. And to overcome this constant danger to popular representation a sure plan would be the payment of all necessary election expenses out of the local rates, and the prohibition by law of all payments by the candidate or by political associations. When members are paid for their attendance in Parliament, far better would it be, too, if such payment were made by the constituents in each case, and not from the national exchequer.[90]Worse than the delegate theory is the opinion that a representative of the people is in Parliament chiefly to keep his party in power. Political parties are inevitable, and they are effective and convenient when principles divide people. But popular representation is older than a party system of government, and when it becomes utterly subordinate to the welfare of parties it is time for a democratic people to realise the possible loss of their instrument of liberty.
Great Britain is not partial to groups, it has always broadly been divided politically into two camps, but a few men of strong independent judgment are invaluable in a popular assembly. There need be no fear lest governments totter and fall at the presence of men who dare to take a line of their own, and to speak out boldly on occasion. The bulk of members of Parliament will always cleave to their party, as the bulk of electors do, and the dread of being thought singular is a potent influence on the average man, in or out of Parliament. Democracy is in danger of losing the counsel of its best men when it insists that its representatives must be merely delegates of the electors, without minds or wills of their own; but it is in greater danger if it allows its representatives to be nothing but the tools of the party in power or in opposition. For when Parliamentary representation is confined to those who are willing to be the mechanical implements of party leaders and managers, the House of Commons becomes an assembly of place-hunters and self-seekers, for whom the profession of politics affords the gratification of vanity or enrichment at the public expense. In such an assembly the self-respecting man with a laudable willingness to serve the State is conspicuous by his absence.
With a Press in the hands of party politicians, and with editors and journalists engaged to write up their party through thick and thin, and to write down every honest effort at political independence of mind, the danger of losing from all political service the few rare minds that can ill be spared is a very real and present danger.
"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance," and often enough we sleep at our vigils. But when all the dangers and difficulties that beset democracy are enumerated, and all its weak spots are laid bare, we can still hold democracy to be the only suitable form of government for persons possessing free will, and the representation of the people the most satisfactory expression of democracy.
Government by autocrat, by despotism, benevolent or otherwise, by expert officials, or by an oligarchy of superior intelligences is irksome to the average man or woman of reasonable education, and in each case has been intolerable to the British people. They have all been tried and found wanting—royal absolutism, aristocracy, military dictatorship, and only of late have we been threatened by an expert bureaucracy.
Parliamentary representation adapted, by the removal of disabilities of creed and rank and income, to meet the demands of the nation, has been proved by experience a clumsy but useful weapon for checking oppression. Nowadays, we are using it less for defence against oppression, or as an instrument for removing political grievances, and are testing its worth for the provision of positive social reform. More and more it is required of Parliament that means be found for getting rid of the ills around us, for preventing disease and destitution, for promoting health and decency.
And just because legislation is, at the prompting of a social conscience, invading our homes and workshops, penetrating into prisons, workhouses, and hospitals, touching the lives of all of us from the cradle to the grave, the more imperative is it that our legislators should be chosen freely by the widest electorate of men and women. We fall back on the old maxim: "That which touches all shall be approved by all," and can perceive no other way of obtaining that general approbation for the laws than by the popular election of our representatives.
Demagogues may exploit the popular will, the cunning and unscrupulous in power may have us at their mercy, in our folly and indifference the nation may be brought to grave losses; but still there is always the means of recovery for the well-disposed while the vote remains in their hands.
So it is that, in spite of obvious failings and shortcomings, democracy by representative government remains for nations throughout the world that have not yet tried it the goal of their political striving. We are alive to the imperfections of democracy. It is no automatic machine for conferring benefits in return for taxes. It is the creation of mankind, not a revelation from heaven; and it needs, like all good human things, constant attention and can bear many improvements. It has to be adjusted from time to time to suit the growing capacities of mankind—as the popular assembly gave way to the representative assembly—and only on the failure to make the adjustment does it get rusty and out of order. It has to meet the requirements of vast empires and mighty confederations of states, and to fulfil the wants of small republics and parish councils.
What but democracy can answer to the call for political liberty that sounds from so many lands and in so many varying tongues? Did any other form of government devised by the wit of man make such universal appeal?
And when all is said and done—what does this democracy, this government by popular representatives, mean, but government by the consent of the governed—the only form of government tolerable to civilised mankind in the twentieth century?
Given a fairly good standard of common honesty in the ordinary dealings of life, and the honesty of our public life, whether in Parliament or in the Civil Service, in executive or administration, will serve. If the private and commercial life is corroded with dishonesty, then democracy will be bitten by knaves and rascals. For our chosen rulers have a way of faithfully reflecting the morality of their electors, and are not free to indulge their fancies, as kings of old were.
Politics are not, and never will be, or ought to be, the chief interest and concern of the mass of people in a healthy community where slavery is extinct. And democracy makes no demand that would involve such interest and concern. The choice of honest representatives, persons of goodwill, and reasonable intelligence, is no tremendous task in a community where honesty, goodwill, and intelligence prevail. And if these things do not prevail, if honesty is contemned in business, and goodwill between man and man despised, and intelligence frowned upon, then it is of small importance what the government of such a nation is, for that nation is doomed, and it is well for the world that it should be doomed.
But, on the whole, it seems indisputable that the common people of the great nations do cleave to honesty and goodwill, and that the desire for intelligence is being widely fostered. As long, then, as we can count on honesty, goodwill, and intelligence in our streets and market-places, as we can to-day, mankind does well to elect its representatives to council and Parliament and proclaim democracy—"Government of the people, by the people, for the people"—as the proper government for mankind.
[1]We cannot be sure about the constitution of the Witenagemot. The evidence is conflicting, and, at best, we can only offer a statement of opinion.[2]"The parish was the community of the township organised for Church purposes and subject to Church discipline, with a constitution which recognised the rights of the whole body as an aggregate, and the right of every adult member,whether man or woman, to a voice in self-government, but at the same time kept the self-governing community under a system of inspection and restraint by a central authority outside the parish boundaries."—Bishop Hobhouse,Somerset Record Society, Vol. IV."The community had its own assembly—the parish meeting—which was a deliberative assembly. It had its own officers, who might be either men or women, duly elected, sometimes for a year, sometimes for life, but in all cases subject to being dismissed for flagrant offences. The larger number of these officials had well-defined duties to discharge, and were paid for their services out of funds provided by the parishioners."—Dr. Jessopp,Before the Great Pillage.[3]Radmer,Life of Anselm. (Rolls Series.)[4]"The boldness of Anselm's attitude not only broke the tradition of ecclesiastical servitude, but infused through the nation at large a new spirit of independence."—J.R. Green,History of the English People.[5]"For as long as any one in all the land was said to hold any power except through him, even in the things of God, it seemed to him that the royal dignity was diminished."—Eadmer,Life of Anselm.[6]See Palgrave'sHistory of Normandy and England.[7]"A martyr he clearly was, not merely to the privileges of the Church or to the rights of the See of Canterbury, but to the general cause of law and order as opposed to violence."—Freeman,Historical Essays.[8]SeeCampbell'sLives of the Chancellors.[9]F. York Powell,England to 1509."Ecclesiastical privileges were not so exclusively priestly privileges as we sometimes fancy. They sheltered not only ordained ministers, but all ecclesiastical officers of every kind; the Church courts also claimed jurisdiction in the causes of widows and orphans. In short, the privileges for which Thomas contended transferred a large part of the people, and that the most helpless part, from the bloody grasp of the King's courts to the milder jurisdiction of the bishop."—Freeman,Historical Essays.[10]Walter of Coventry. (Rolls Series.)[11]Roger of Wendover. (Rolls Series.)[12]"Clause by clause the rights of the commons are provided for as well as the rights of the nobles; the interest of the freeholder is everywhere coupled with that of the barons and knights; the stock of the merchant and the wainage of the villein are preserved from undue severity of amercement as well as the settled estate of the earldom or barony. The knight is protected against the compulsory exaction of his services, and the horse and cart of the freeman against the irregular requisition even of the sheriff."—Stubbs,Constitutional History.[13]"Quod Anglicana Ecclesia libera sit."—Magna Charta, I.[14]"This most important provision may be regarded as a summing-up of the history of Parliament so far as it can be said yet to exist. It probably contains nothing which had not been for a long time in theory a part of the Constitution: the kings had long consulted their council on taxation; that council consisted of the elements that are here specified. But the right had never yet been stated in so clear a form, and the statement thus made seems to have startled even the barons.... It was for the attainment of this right that the struggles of the reign of Henry III. were carried on; and the realisation of the claim was deferred until the reign of his successor. In these clauses the nation had now obtained a comparatively clear definition of the right on which their future political power was to be based."—Stubbs,Constitutional History.[15]"Ut quod omnes similiter tangit ab omnibus approbetur."[16]Stubbs,Constitutional History.[17]Stubbs,Ibid.[18]"Analogous examples may be taken from the practice of the ecclesiastical assemblies, in which the representative theory is introduced shortly before it finds its way into parliament."—Stubbs,Constitutional History.[19]Stubbs,Constitutional History.[20]Stubbs,Constitutional History.[21]F. York Powell,England to 1509.[22]Sir Courtenay Ilbert,Parliament.[23]Ilbert,Parliament.[24]Bagehot,The English Constitution.[25]Bagehot,Ibid.[26]Stubbs,Constitutional History.[27]Stubbs,Constitutional History.[28]Andrew Marvell, the poet, who sat for Hull in the reign of Charles II., was paid by the mayor and aldermen of the borough. In return Marvell wrote letters describing passing events in London. There are stray cases of the payment of members in the early years of the eighteenth century. Four shillings a day, including the journey to and from London, for the knight of the shire, and two shillings a day for the borough member were the wages fixed by law in 1323.[29]Stubbs,Constitutional History.[30]Bagehot,The English Constitution.[31]SeeStopes'British Freewomenfor a full examination of this matter.[32]Stubbs,Constitutional History.[33]For the last fifty years the political influence of London has been less than that of the manufacturing districts.[34]"The project was clearly to set up a new order of things founded on social equality—a theory which in the whole history of the Middle Ages appears for the first time in connection with this movement."—Dr. Gairdner,Introduction to Paston Letters.[35]Four centuries later and this doctrine of all men having been born free at the beginning was to be preached again in popular fashion by Rousseau and find expression in American Independence and the French Revolution.[36]Froissart seems to be chiefly responsible for the notion, found in the writings of later historians, that this John Tyler was the leader of the revolt, and for the confusion that mistakenly identifies him with Wat Tyler, of Maidstone, the real leader. Three other Tylers are mentioned in the records of the Peasant Revolt—Walter, of Essex, and two of the City of London.[37]Hallam,Middle Ages.[38]This law of Winchester was the statute of Edward I., 1285, which authorised local authorities to appoint constables and preserve the peace. According to a statement made by Jack Straw, Tyler and his lieutenants intended, amongst other things, to get rid of the King's Council, and make each county a self-governing commune.[39]There are some grounds for believing that a plot had been made to slay Wat Tyler at Smithfield.SeeDr. G. KriehnAmerican Review, 1902.[40]F. York Powell,England to 1509.[41]Durrant Cooper,John Cade's Followers in Kent.[42]"These lords found him sober in talk, wise in reasoning, arrogant in heart, and stiff in opinions; one who by no means would dissolve his army, except the King in person would come to him, and assent to the things he would require."—Holinshed.[43]Stow.[44]"Whereof he (Cade) lost the people's favour and hearts. For it was to be thought if he had not executed that robbery he might have gone far and brought his purpose to good effect."—Fabyan'sChronicle."And for this the hearts of the citizens fell from him, and every thrifty man was afraid to be served in likewise, for there was many a man in London that awaited and would fain have seen a common robbery."—Stow.[45]"During the period, which may be roughly defined as from 1450 to 1550, enclosure meant to a large extent the actual dispossession of the tenants by their manorial lords. This took place either in the form of the violent ousting of the sitting tenant, or of a refusal on the death of one tenant to admit the son, who in earlier centuries would have been treated as his natural successor. Proofs abound."—W.J. Ashley,Economic History.[46]SeeDr. Jessop,The Great Pillage.[47]"That a populous and wealthy city like Norwich should have been for three weeks in the hands of 20,000 rebels, and should have escaped utter pillage and ruin, speaks highly for the rebel leaders."—W. Rye,Victoria County History of Norfolk."Robert Ket was not a mere craftsman: he was a man of substance, the owner of several manors; his conduct throughout was marked by considerable generosity; nor can the name of patriot be denied to him who deserted the class to which he might have belonged or aspired, and cast in his lot with the suffering people."—Canon Dixon,History of the Church of England.[48]"There was something in the temper of these celebrated men which secured them against the proverbial inconstancy both of the Court and of individuals.... No Parliament attacked their influence. No mob coupled their names with any odious grievance.... They were, one and all, Protestants. But ... none of them chose to run the smallest personal risk during the reign of Mary. No men observed more accurately the signs of the times.... Their fidelity to the State was incorruptible. No intrigue, no combination of rivals could deprive them of the confidence of their Sovereign."—Macaulay,Burleigh, his Times.[49]"The Tudor monarchs exercised freely their power of creating boroughs by charter. They used their Parliaments, and had to find means of controlling them. In the creation of 'pocket' or 'rotten' boroughs, Queen Elizabeth was probably the worst offender. She had much influence in her Duchy of Cornwall, and many of the Cornish boroughs which obtained such a scandalous reputation in later times were created by her for the return of those whom the lords of her council would consider 'safe' men."—Ilbert,Parliament.[50]Elizabeth's popularity steadily diminished in her last years. The death of Essex, ecclesiastical persecutions, increased taxation, and the irritations caused by royal expenditure were all responsible for the discontent. James I. failed from the first to secure the goodwill of the people.[51]Oxford men all three. Sir John Eliot was at Exeter College, 1607; John Hampden at Magdalen, 1609; and John Pym at Broadgate Hall (later called Pembroke), 1599.[52]Clarendon,History of the Great Rebellion.[53]"The same men who, six months before, were observed to be of very moderate tempers, and to wish that gentle remedies might be applied, talked now in another dialect both of Kings and persons; and said that they must now be of another temper than they were the last Parliament."—Clarendon,ibid.[54]Macaulay,Hallam's Constitutional History.[55]"The great rule of Cromwell was a series of failures to reconcile the authority of the 'single person' with the authority of Parliament."—Ilbert,Parliament.[56]"A very large number of persons regarded the struggle with indifference.... In one case, the inhabitants of an entire county pledged themselves to remain neutral. Many quietly changed with the times (as people changed with the varying fortunes of York and Lancaster). That this sentiment of neutrality was common to the greater mass of the working classes is obvious from the simultaneous appearance of the club men in different parts of the country with their motto: 'If you take our cattle, we will give you battle.'"—G.P. Gooch,History of Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century.[57]SeeMemorial of English Affairs.[58]"By its injudicious treatment of the most popular man in England, Parliament was arraying against itself a force which only awaited an opportunity to sweep it away."—G.P. Gooch,History of Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century.[59]"So die the Leveller corporals. Strong they, after their sort, for the liberties of England; resolute to the very death."—Carlyle.[60]"Then ensued a scene, the like of which had in all probability never been witnessed in an English court of justice, and was never again to be witnessed till the seven bishops were freed by the verdict of a jury from the rage of James II."—S.R. Gardiner,History of the Commonwealth.[61]Professor C.H. Firth, Lilburne inDict. Nat. Biography.[62]Winstanley'sNew Law of Righteousness, 1649.[63]Palgrave. Introduction to Erskine May,Parliamentary Practice.[64]Sir John Eliot, 1629.[65]Edward II., in 1327, and Richard II., in 1399, had not been deposed without the consent of Parliament.[66]"The monarchical regime which was revived under Charles II. broke down under James II. It was left for the 'glorious Revolution' of 1688, and for the Hanoverian dynasty, to develop the ingenious system of adjustments and compromises which is now known, sometimes as cabinet government, sometimes as parliamentary government."—Ilbert,Parliament.[67]G.P. Gooch,Annals of Politics and Culture.[68]Palmerston's influence in the House of Commons was about as bad in the nineteenth century.—SeeBagehot,The English Constitution.[69]"Here and there we find an eminent man, whose public services were so notorious that it was impossible to avoid rewarding them; but putting aside those who were in a manner forced upon the Sovereign, it would be idle to deny that the remainder and, of course, the overwhelming majority, were marked by a narrowness and illiberality of sentiment, which, more than anything else, brought the whole order into contempt. No great thinkers, no great writers, no great orators, no great statesman, none of the true nobility of the land, were to be found among those spurious nobles created by George III. Nor were the material interests of the country better represented. Among the most important men in England those engaged in banking and commerce held a high place; since the end of the seventeenth century their influence had rapidly increased.... But in the reign of George III. claims of this sort were little heeded."—Buckle,History of Civilisation.[70]"They, the friars, and especially the Franciscans, largely influenced politics. The conception of individual freedom, upon which the life of St. Francis was built, went far to instil the idea of civic freedom into men's minds.... It was the ideas of the friars that found expression in the Baron's War." The Song of the Battle of Lewes "set forth unmistakably the conception of the official position of the King, and affirmed the right of his subjects to remove evil counsellors from his neighbourhood, and to remind him of his duty—ideas due to the political influence of the Franciscans."—Creighton,Historical Lectures and Addresses.[71]The late Lord Acton pointed out that St. Thomas Aquinas was really the first Whig.[72]See Introduction to Rousseau'sSocial Contract, by H. J. Tozer.[73]"That which distinguishes the French Revolution from other political movements is that it was directed by men who had adopted certain speculative a priori conceptions with the fanaticism and proselytising fervour of a religious belief, and the Bible of their Creed was theContrat Socialof Rousseau."—Lecky,England in Eighteenth Century, Vol. V."The original contract seized on as a watchword by Rousseau's enthusiasm grew from an arid fiction into a great and dangerous deceit of nations."—SirF. Pollock,History of the Science of Politics.[74]Mr. H.J. Tozer. Introduction to Rousseau'sSocial Contract.[75]See Conway'sLife of Paine, Vol. I.[76]Professor T.F. Tout,England from 1689.[77]Tout,ibid.[78]Tout,ibid.[79]R.G. Gammage,History of the Chartist Movement.[80]"The condition of the labouring classes was the least satisfactory feature of English life in 1846. Politically they were dumb, for they had no parliamentary votes. Socially they were depressed, though their lot had been considerably improved by an increased demand for labour and by the removal of taxes in Peel's great Budget of 1842. That was the year in which the misery of the English proletariat reached its lowest depth."—Herbert Paul,History of Modern England.[81]Justin McCarthy,Short History of Our Own Times.[82]McCarthy,Ibid.[83]Tout,England since 1689.[84]"For a general extension of the franchise, an extension from the occupation franchise to the adult franchise, there does not appear to be any demand, except in connection with the burning question of the franchise for women."—Ilbert,Parliament.[85]"On the mere numerical basis Ireland is much over-represented, but Ireland claims to be treated as a separate entity, and her claims cannot be disregarded."—Ilbert,Parliament.[86]Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour, M.P., House of Commons, 1910.[87]"With great tact, and without very much friction, he brought the monarchy into touch with the state of things brought about by the Reform Bill. He did for the Crown what Wellington did for the House of Lords. Just as the Duke saw that the Lords must give up setting themselves against the national will strongly expressed, so did the Prince see that the Crown could no longer exercise thoselegalrights for which George III. had fought so manfully. Like the Lords, the Crown now became a checking and regulating, rather than a moving, force. It remained as the pledge and symbol of the unity and continuity of the national life, and could do good work in tempering the evils of absolute party government. Such of the royalprerogativesas were not dead must be carried out by ministers. The royalinfluencecontinued to run through every branch of the State."—ProfessorT.F. Tout,England from 1689.[88]Mr. J.M. Robertson, M.P.,Charles Bradlaugh—A Record of His Life and Work.[89]F. York Powell,Thoughts on Democracy.[90]Unfortunately the present House of Commons has just decided, August, 1911, to pay its members a salary of £400 a year from the national revenue. It is to be regretted that the cost has not been laid directly on the electors, and that the time is not more appropriate. With the country torn with strikes of workmen seeking a few extra shillings a week, it was hardly the opportune moment for a House of Commons to vote itself some £250,000 a year. The proposal would have been more palatable to the nation if the Commons had decided that payment should begin with thenextParliament.
[1]We cannot be sure about the constitution of the Witenagemot. The evidence is conflicting, and, at best, we can only offer a statement of opinion.
[2]"The parish was the community of the township organised for Church purposes and subject to Church discipline, with a constitution which recognised the rights of the whole body as an aggregate, and the right of every adult member,whether man or woman, to a voice in self-government, but at the same time kept the self-governing community under a system of inspection and restraint by a central authority outside the parish boundaries."—Bishop Hobhouse,Somerset Record Society, Vol. IV.
"The community had its own assembly—the parish meeting—which was a deliberative assembly. It had its own officers, who might be either men or women, duly elected, sometimes for a year, sometimes for life, but in all cases subject to being dismissed for flagrant offences. The larger number of these officials had well-defined duties to discharge, and were paid for their services out of funds provided by the parishioners."—Dr. Jessopp,Before the Great Pillage.
[3]Radmer,Life of Anselm. (Rolls Series.)
[4]"The boldness of Anselm's attitude not only broke the tradition of ecclesiastical servitude, but infused through the nation at large a new spirit of independence."—J.R. Green,History of the English People.
[5]"For as long as any one in all the land was said to hold any power except through him, even in the things of God, it seemed to him that the royal dignity was diminished."—Eadmer,Life of Anselm.
[6]See Palgrave'sHistory of Normandy and England.
[7]"A martyr he clearly was, not merely to the privileges of the Church or to the rights of the See of Canterbury, but to the general cause of law and order as opposed to violence."—Freeman,Historical Essays.
[8]SeeCampbell'sLives of the Chancellors.
[9]F. York Powell,England to 1509.
"Ecclesiastical privileges were not so exclusively priestly privileges as we sometimes fancy. They sheltered not only ordained ministers, but all ecclesiastical officers of every kind; the Church courts also claimed jurisdiction in the causes of widows and orphans. In short, the privileges for which Thomas contended transferred a large part of the people, and that the most helpless part, from the bloody grasp of the King's courts to the milder jurisdiction of the bishop."—Freeman,Historical Essays.
[10]Walter of Coventry. (Rolls Series.)
[11]Roger of Wendover. (Rolls Series.)
[12]"Clause by clause the rights of the commons are provided for as well as the rights of the nobles; the interest of the freeholder is everywhere coupled with that of the barons and knights; the stock of the merchant and the wainage of the villein are preserved from undue severity of amercement as well as the settled estate of the earldom or barony. The knight is protected against the compulsory exaction of his services, and the horse and cart of the freeman against the irregular requisition even of the sheriff."—Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[13]"Quod Anglicana Ecclesia libera sit."—Magna Charta, I.
[14]"This most important provision may be regarded as a summing-up of the history of Parliament so far as it can be said yet to exist. It probably contains nothing which had not been for a long time in theory a part of the Constitution: the kings had long consulted their council on taxation; that council consisted of the elements that are here specified. But the right had never yet been stated in so clear a form, and the statement thus made seems to have startled even the barons.... It was for the attainment of this right that the struggles of the reign of Henry III. were carried on; and the realisation of the claim was deferred until the reign of his successor. In these clauses the nation had now obtained a comparatively clear definition of the right on which their future political power was to be based."—Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[15]"Ut quod omnes similiter tangit ab omnibus approbetur."
[16]Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[17]Stubbs,Ibid.
[18]"Analogous examples may be taken from the practice of the ecclesiastical assemblies, in which the representative theory is introduced shortly before it finds its way into parliament."—Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[19]Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[20]Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[21]F. York Powell,England to 1509.
[22]Sir Courtenay Ilbert,Parliament.
[23]Ilbert,Parliament.
[24]Bagehot,The English Constitution.
[25]Bagehot,Ibid.
[26]Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[27]Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[28]Andrew Marvell, the poet, who sat for Hull in the reign of Charles II., was paid by the mayor and aldermen of the borough. In return Marvell wrote letters describing passing events in London. There are stray cases of the payment of members in the early years of the eighteenth century. Four shillings a day, including the journey to and from London, for the knight of the shire, and two shillings a day for the borough member were the wages fixed by law in 1323.
[29]Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[30]Bagehot,The English Constitution.
[31]SeeStopes'British Freewomenfor a full examination of this matter.
[32]Stubbs,Constitutional History.
[33]For the last fifty years the political influence of London has been less than that of the manufacturing districts.
[34]"The project was clearly to set up a new order of things founded on social equality—a theory which in the whole history of the Middle Ages appears for the first time in connection with this movement."—Dr. Gairdner,Introduction to Paston Letters.
[35]Four centuries later and this doctrine of all men having been born free at the beginning was to be preached again in popular fashion by Rousseau and find expression in American Independence and the French Revolution.
[36]Froissart seems to be chiefly responsible for the notion, found in the writings of later historians, that this John Tyler was the leader of the revolt, and for the confusion that mistakenly identifies him with Wat Tyler, of Maidstone, the real leader. Three other Tylers are mentioned in the records of the Peasant Revolt—Walter, of Essex, and two of the City of London.
[37]Hallam,Middle Ages.
[38]This law of Winchester was the statute of Edward I., 1285, which authorised local authorities to appoint constables and preserve the peace. According to a statement made by Jack Straw, Tyler and his lieutenants intended, amongst other things, to get rid of the King's Council, and make each county a self-governing commune.
[39]There are some grounds for believing that a plot had been made to slay Wat Tyler at Smithfield.SeeDr. G. KriehnAmerican Review, 1902.
[40]F. York Powell,England to 1509.
[41]Durrant Cooper,John Cade's Followers in Kent.
[42]"These lords found him sober in talk, wise in reasoning, arrogant in heart, and stiff in opinions; one who by no means would dissolve his army, except the King in person would come to him, and assent to the things he would require."—Holinshed.
[43]Stow.
[44]"Whereof he (Cade) lost the people's favour and hearts. For it was to be thought if he had not executed that robbery he might have gone far and brought his purpose to good effect."—Fabyan'sChronicle.
"And for this the hearts of the citizens fell from him, and every thrifty man was afraid to be served in likewise, for there was many a man in London that awaited and would fain have seen a common robbery."—Stow.
[45]"During the period, which may be roughly defined as from 1450 to 1550, enclosure meant to a large extent the actual dispossession of the tenants by their manorial lords. This took place either in the form of the violent ousting of the sitting tenant, or of a refusal on the death of one tenant to admit the son, who in earlier centuries would have been treated as his natural successor. Proofs abound."—W.J. Ashley,Economic History.
[46]SeeDr. Jessop,The Great Pillage.
[47]"That a populous and wealthy city like Norwich should have been for three weeks in the hands of 20,000 rebels, and should have escaped utter pillage and ruin, speaks highly for the rebel leaders."—W. Rye,Victoria County History of Norfolk.
"Robert Ket was not a mere craftsman: he was a man of substance, the owner of several manors; his conduct throughout was marked by considerable generosity; nor can the name of patriot be denied to him who deserted the class to which he might have belonged or aspired, and cast in his lot with the suffering people."—Canon Dixon,History of the Church of England.
[48]"There was something in the temper of these celebrated men which secured them against the proverbial inconstancy both of the Court and of individuals.... No Parliament attacked their influence. No mob coupled their names with any odious grievance.... They were, one and all, Protestants. But ... none of them chose to run the smallest personal risk during the reign of Mary. No men observed more accurately the signs of the times.... Their fidelity to the State was incorruptible. No intrigue, no combination of rivals could deprive them of the confidence of their Sovereign."—Macaulay,Burleigh, his Times.
[49]"The Tudor monarchs exercised freely their power of creating boroughs by charter. They used their Parliaments, and had to find means of controlling them. In the creation of 'pocket' or 'rotten' boroughs, Queen Elizabeth was probably the worst offender. She had much influence in her Duchy of Cornwall, and many of the Cornish boroughs which obtained such a scandalous reputation in later times were created by her for the return of those whom the lords of her council would consider 'safe' men."—Ilbert,Parliament.
[50]Elizabeth's popularity steadily diminished in her last years. The death of Essex, ecclesiastical persecutions, increased taxation, and the irritations caused by royal expenditure were all responsible for the discontent. James I. failed from the first to secure the goodwill of the people.
[51]Oxford men all three. Sir John Eliot was at Exeter College, 1607; John Hampden at Magdalen, 1609; and John Pym at Broadgate Hall (later called Pembroke), 1599.
[52]Clarendon,History of the Great Rebellion.
[53]"The same men who, six months before, were observed to be of very moderate tempers, and to wish that gentle remedies might be applied, talked now in another dialect both of Kings and persons; and said that they must now be of another temper than they were the last Parliament."—Clarendon,ibid.
[54]Macaulay,Hallam's Constitutional History.
[55]"The great rule of Cromwell was a series of failures to reconcile the authority of the 'single person' with the authority of Parliament."—Ilbert,Parliament.
[56]"A very large number of persons regarded the struggle with indifference.... In one case, the inhabitants of an entire county pledged themselves to remain neutral. Many quietly changed with the times (as people changed with the varying fortunes of York and Lancaster). That this sentiment of neutrality was common to the greater mass of the working classes is obvious from the simultaneous appearance of the club men in different parts of the country with their motto: 'If you take our cattle, we will give you battle.'"—G.P. Gooch,History of Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century.
[57]SeeMemorial of English Affairs.
[58]"By its injudicious treatment of the most popular man in England, Parliament was arraying against itself a force which only awaited an opportunity to sweep it away."—G.P. Gooch,History of Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century.
[59]"So die the Leveller corporals. Strong they, after their sort, for the liberties of England; resolute to the very death."—Carlyle.
[60]"Then ensued a scene, the like of which had in all probability never been witnessed in an English court of justice, and was never again to be witnessed till the seven bishops were freed by the verdict of a jury from the rage of James II."—S.R. Gardiner,History of the Commonwealth.
[61]Professor C.H. Firth, Lilburne inDict. Nat. Biography.
[62]Winstanley'sNew Law of Righteousness, 1649.
[63]Palgrave. Introduction to Erskine May,Parliamentary Practice.
[64]Sir John Eliot, 1629.
[65]Edward II., in 1327, and Richard II., in 1399, had not been deposed without the consent of Parliament.
[66]"The monarchical regime which was revived under Charles II. broke down under James II. It was left for the 'glorious Revolution' of 1688, and for the Hanoverian dynasty, to develop the ingenious system of adjustments and compromises which is now known, sometimes as cabinet government, sometimes as parliamentary government."—Ilbert,Parliament.
[67]G.P. Gooch,Annals of Politics and Culture.
[68]Palmerston's influence in the House of Commons was about as bad in the nineteenth century.—SeeBagehot,The English Constitution.
[69]"Here and there we find an eminent man, whose public services were so notorious that it was impossible to avoid rewarding them; but putting aside those who were in a manner forced upon the Sovereign, it would be idle to deny that the remainder and, of course, the overwhelming majority, were marked by a narrowness and illiberality of sentiment, which, more than anything else, brought the whole order into contempt. No great thinkers, no great writers, no great orators, no great statesman, none of the true nobility of the land, were to be found among those spurious nobles created by George III. Nor were the material interests of the country better represented. Among the most important men in England those engaged in banking and commerce held a high place; since the end of the seventeenth century their influence had rapidly increased.... But in the reign of George III. claims of this sort were little heeded."—Buckle,History of Civilisation.
[70]"They, the friars, and especially the Franciscans, largely influenced politics. The conception of individual freedom, upon which the life of St. Francis was built, went far to instil the idea of civic freedom into men's minds.... It was the ideas of the friars that found expression in the Baron's War." The Song of the Battle of Lewes "set forth unmistakably the conception of the official position of the King, and affirmed the right of his subjects to remove evil counsellors from his neighbourhood, and to remind him of his duty—ideas due to the political influence of the Franciscans."—Creighton,Historical Lectures and Addresses.
[71]The late Lord Acton pointed out that St. Thomas Aquinas was really the first Whig.
[72]See Introduction to Rousseau'sSocial Contract, by H. J. Tozer.
[73]"That which distinguishes the French Revolution from other political movements is that it was directed by men who had adopted certain speculative a priori conceptions with the fanaticism and proselytising fervour of a religious belief, and the Bible of their Creed was theContrat Socialof Rousseau."—Lecky,England in Eighteenth Century, Vol. V.
"The original contract seized on as a watchword by Rousseau's enthusiasm grew from an arid fiction into a great and dangerous deceit of nations."—SirF. Pollock,History of the Science of Politics.
[74]Mr. H.J. Tozer. Introduction to Rousseau'sSocial Contract.
[75]See Conway'sLife of Paine, Vol. I.
[76]Professor T.F. Tout,England from 1689.
[77]Tout,ibid.
[78]Tout,ibid.
[79]R.G. Gammage,History of the Chartist Movement.
[80]"The condition of the labouring classes was the least satisfactory feature of English life in 1846. Politically they were dumb, for they had no parliamentary votes. Socially they were depressed, though their lot had been considerably improved by an increased demand for labour and by the removal of taxes in Peel's great Budget of 1842. That was the year in which the misery of the English proletariat reached its lowest depth."—Herbert Paul,History of Modern England.
[81]Justin McCarthy,Short History of Our Own Times.
[82]McCarthy,Ibid.
[83]Tout,England since 1689.
[84]"For a general extension of the franchise, an extension from the occupation franchise to the adult franchise, there does not appear to be any demand, except in connection with the burning question of the franchise for women."—Ilbert,Parliament.
[85]"On the mere numerical basis Ireland is much over-represented, but Ireland claims to be treated as a separate entity, and her claims cannot be disregarded."—Ilbert,Parliament.
[86]Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour, M.P., House of Commons, 1910.
[87]"With great tact, and without very much friction, he brought the monarchy into touch with the state of things brought about by the Reform Bill. He did for the Crown what Wellington did for the House of Lords. Just as the Duke saw that the Lords must give up setting themselves against the national will strongly expressed, so did the Prince see that the Crown could no longer exercise thoselegalrights for which George III. had fought so manfully. Like the Lords, the Crown now became a checking and regulating, rather than a moving, force. It remained as the pledge and symbol of the unity and continuity of the national life, and could do good work in tempering the evils of absolute party government. Such of the royalprerogativesas were not dead must be carried out by ministers. The royalinfluencecontinued to run through every branch of the State."—ProfessorT.F. Tout,England from 1689.
[88]Mr. J.M. Robertson, M.P.,Charles Bradlaugh—A Record of His Life and Work.
[89]F. York Powell,Thoughts on Democracy.
[90]Unfortunately the present House of Commons has just decided, August, 1911, to pay its members a salary of £400 a year from the national revenue. It is to be regretted that the cost has not been laid directly on the electors, and that the time is not more appropriate. With the country torn with strikes of workmen seeking a few extra shillings a week, it was hardly the opportune moment for a House of Commons to vote itself some £250,000 a year. The proposal would have been more palatable to the nation if the Commons had decided that payment should begin with thenextParliament.