Part 23

Essays on Parliamentary Reform.

Green's History of the English People, vol. iv., pp. 202, 203.

"G. B." in N. Y. Nation, Nov. 30, 1882.

An attempt was once made to bring the previous question into the practices of the Senate, but it failed of success, and so that imperative form of cutting off all further discussion has fortunately never found a place there.

As regards all financial measures indeed committee supervision is specially thorough in the Senate. "All amendments to general appropriation bills reported from the Committees of the Senate, proposing new items of appropriation, shall, one day before they are offered, be referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and all general appropriation bills shall be referred to said Committee; and in like manner amendments to bills making appropriations for rivers and harbors shall be again referred to the Committee to which such bills shall be referred."--Senate Rule 30.

The twenty-nine Standing Committees of the Senate are, however, chosen by ballot, not appointed by the Vice-President, who is an appendage, not a member, of the Senate.

In the Birmingham Town Hall, November 3, 1882. I quote from the report of the London Times.

"No Senator shall speak more than twice, in any one debate, on the same day, without leave of the Senate."--Senate Rule 4.

These quotations from Bagehot are taken from various parts of the fifth chapter of his English Constitution.

These are the words of Lord Rosebery--testimony from the oldest and most celebrated second chamber that exists.

There seems to have been at one time a tendency towards a better practice. In 1813 the Senate sought to revive the early custom, in accordance with which the President delivered his messages in person, by requesting the attendance of the President to consult upon foreign affairs; but Mr. Madison declined.

North American Review, vol. 108, p. 625.

English Constitution, chap, viii., p. 293.

Atlantic Monthly, vol. xxv., p. 148.

Something like this has been actually proposed by Mr. Albert Stickney, in his interesting and incisive essay, A True Republic.

State, Treasury, War, Navy.

As quoted in Macmillan's Magazine, vol. vii., p. 67.

I quote from an excellent handbook, The United States Government, by Lamphere.

"In America the President cannot prevent any law from being passed, nor can he evade the obligation of enforcing it His sincere and zealous cooperation is no doubt useful, but it is not indispensable, in the carrying on of public affairs. All his important acts are directly or indirectly submitted to the legislature, and of his own free authority he can do but little. It is, therefore, his weakness, and not his power, which enables him to remain in opposition to Congress. In Europe, harmony must reign between the Crown and the other branches of the legislature, because a collision between them may prove serious; in America, this harmony is not indispensable, because such a collision is impossible."--De Tocqueville, i. p. 124.

Westminster Review, vol. lxvi., p. 193.

Tenure of Office Act, already discussed.

These "ifs" are abundantly supported by the executive acts of the war-time. The Constitution had then to stand aside that President Lincoln might be as prompt as the seeming necessities of the time.

Central Government (Eng. Citizen Series), II. D. Traill, p. 20.

Professor Sumner's Andrew Jackson (American Statesmen Series), p. 226. "Finally," adds Prof. S., "the methods and machinery of democratic republican self-government--caucuses, primaries, committees, and conventions--lend themselves perhaps more easily than any other methods and machinery to the uses of selfish cliques which seek political influence for interested purposes."

Bagehot: Essay on Sir Robert Peel, p. 24.

H. C. Lodge's Alexander Hamilton (Am. Statesmen Series), pp. 60, 61.

Bagehot, Eng. Const., p. 293.

Bagehot, Eng. Const., p. 296.