"Where are they gone, the old familiar faces?" was the question
one asked oneself on looking at the crowded benches of the House of
Commons. It was said of a Past President of the United States that he
was the politest man in America--"he gave up his seat in a street-car
and made room for four ladies." The gap made on the Front Opposition
Bench by the involuntary retirement of Mr. ASQUITH--to which generous
allusion was made by the PRIME MINISTER--is so vast that the joint
efforts of Sir DONALD MACLEAN and Mr. ADAMSON to fill it met with only
partial success. Unless, by the way, Mr. SPEAKER definitely decides
the problem of precedence, it is to be feared that the hoped-for
acceleration of business will not occur, for at present each of them
thinks it necessary to speak whenever the other does, like the hungry
lions on Afric's burning shore. For all their outward politeness I am
sure "the first lion thinks the last a bore"; and if they insist on
roaring together much longer the House will think it of both of them.
The corner-seat whence Mr. PRINGLE flung his barbed darts at the
Government is filled, physically, by Mr. STANTON. Lonely Mr. HOGGE now
sits uneasily upon the Front Opposition Bench, but, fearing perhaps
lest its dignified traditions should cramp his style, makes frequent
visits to the Lobby.
In accordance with ancient custom Sir COURTENAY ILBERT asserted the
right of the House to initiate legislation by calling out "Outlawries
Bill" in the middle of the SPEAKER's recital of the Sessional Orders.
Some of the new Members, I fancy, took the interruption seriously,
and thought that this was the outcome of the "Punish the KAISER."
movement.
The Mover and Seconder of the Address fully deserved the customary
compliments. Col. Sir RHYS WILLIAMS' quiet and effective style
explained his success as a picker-up of recruits; while Lt.-Commander
DEAN, V.C., though he faced the House with much more trepidation than
he did the batteries of Zeebrugge, got well home at the finish.
[Illustration: SOUTH HACKNEY'S CHAMPION.]
The lot of a Labour leader just now is not a happy one. Perhaps that
accounted for the querulous tone assumed by Mr. ADAMSON, who seemed
more concerned with the omissions in the KING's Speech than with its
contents. His best sayings were imported from America, but he would
have done better to content himself with LINCOLN and abjure BRYAN,
whose "cross-of-gold" fustian will not bear repetition.
After Sir DONALD MACLEAN had thoughtfully provided a welcome tea
interval the PRIME MINISTER rose to reply to his critics. The
accusation that he had forgotten some of his recent promises, such
as "No Conscription," "Punish the Kaiser," and "Germany must pay,"
did not trouble him much. If these election-eggs had hatched
out prematurely and the contents were coming home to roost at an
inconvenient moment he had no time to attend to them. What the country
most needs at the moment is a firm clear statement on the Labour
troubles, and that is what it got. So far as those troubles are due
to remediable causes they shall be remedied; so far as the demands of
Labour are based upon class-greed they shall be fought tooth and nail.
There were a few dissentient shouts from the Opposition Benches, but
the House as a whole was delighted when the PREMIER in ringing tones
declared that "no section, however powerful, will be allowed to hold
up the whole nation."
_Wednesday, February 12th_.--The Lords had a brisk little debate on
agriculture. Lord LINCOLNSHIRE paid many compliments to Lord ERNLE
for what he had accomplished as Mr. PROTHERO, but could not understand
why, having exchanged the green benches for the red, he should have
reversed his old policy, "scrapped" the agricultural committees and
begun to dispose of his tractors. Lord ERNLE, in the measured tones
so suitable to the Upper House, made a good defence of the change. The
chief thing wanted now was to "clean the land," where noxious weeds,
the Bolshevists of the soil, had been spreading with great rapidity.
As for the tractors, the Board thought it a good thing that the
farmers should possess their own, but would retain in its own hands
enough of them to help farmers who could not help themselves--not a
large class, I imagine, with produce at its present prices.
In the Commons an hour was spent in discussing the Government's
now customary motion to take all the time of the House. Up got Mr.
ADAMSON, to denounce it, now the War was over, as sheer Kaiserism. Up
got Sir DONALD MACLEAN to defend it as commonsense, though he induced
Mr. BONAR LAW to limit its duration to the end of March. Colonel
WEDGWOOD pleaded that private Members might still be allowed to bring
in Bills under the Ten Minutes' Rule; but that Parliamentary pundit,
Sir F. BANBURY, asserted that there was no such thing in reality as
the Ten Minutes' Rule, and pictured the possibility of whole days
being swallowed up by a succession of private Members commending their
legislative bantlings one after another with the brief explanatory
statement permitted on such occasions. Alarmed at the prospect Mr. LAW
decided not to admit the thin end of the WEDGWOOD.
[Illustration: ELEMENTARY ECONOMICS.]
The debate on the Address was resumed by Mr. BOTTOMLEY, who had a
large audience. During his previous membership, terminated by one of
those periodical visits to the Law Courts to which he made humorous
reference, he delivered some capital speeches; and it was pleasant
to find that the necessity of constantly producing "another powerful
article next week" has not caused him to lose his oratorical form.
His gestures are slightly reminiscent of the action of the common
pump-handle, but his voice is excellent, and his matter has the merit
of exactly resembling what our old friend "the Man in the Street"
would say in less Parliamentary language, He has no hesitations, for
example, on the subject of making Germany pay. By one of those rapid
financial calculations for which he is renowned he has arrived at
the comfortable figure of ten thousand millions sterling as Britain's
little bill; and if you express doubts as to the debtor's capacity
to pay he replies that he cannot recall any judge who made an order
against him ever prefacing his judgment with an inquiry whether it
would be convenient for him to find the money.
Payment in kind is Mr. RONALD McNEILL's prescription. Let Leipzig
library replenish the empty shelves of Louvain and the windows of
Cologne make good--so far as German glass can do it--the shattered
glories of Rheims.
Mr. CLYNES warned the Government against neglecting the legitimate
aspirations of Labour, one of which, he had the courage to affirm, was
access to more and better beer. He also sought a clear statement of
the Government's policy in Russia. This request was repeated by Sir
SAMUEL HOARE, who, having spent a year and a half during the War
in that distracted country, declared that "we must decide between
Bolshevists and anti-Bolshevists." Unfortunately that is exactly what,
according to the PRIME MINISTER's reply, we cannot do. The Allies
are not prepared to intervene in force; they cannot leave Russia to
stew in Her own hell-broth. The proposed Conference is admittedly a
_pis-aller_; and, if it ever meets, no one can feel very hopeful of a
tangible result from the deliberations of the Prinkipotentiaries.
_Thursday, February 13th_.--Labour unrest produced a capital debate,
in which Mr. BRACE, Mr. THOMAS and Mr. SEXTON made excellent speeches
on the one side, and Major TRYON, Mr. REMER (an employer and a
profit-sharer) and Mr. BONAR LAW were equally effective on the other.
Brushing aside minor causes the Leader of the House, in his forthright
manner, said the root of the matter was that "Labour wants a larger
share of the good things which are to be obtained in this world"--not
an unreasonable desire, he indicated, but one which would not be
permanently realised by strikes directed against the whole community.
Mr. SEDDON, of the National Democratic Party, compressed the same
argument into an epigram. If the miners' full demands were conceded
they would have "an El Dorado for one minute and disaster the next."
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