had the opportunity of exhibiting a creditable knowledge of the business of his office and a laudable sympathy with colonial interests. Shortly after the commencement of the Session Mr. BonhamCarter became Chairman of Committees, on the retirement of Mr. Dodson, who had for several years discharged the duties of the office to the satisfaction of the House. Shortly before his resignation Mr. Dodson moved a series of resolutions providing for the transfer of the jurisdiction of Parliament over Private Bills to some permanent tribunal; but, as on former occasions, the House of Commons hesitated to delegate to an unknown authority an important branch of legislation, and the House of Lords, which would probably regard with jealousy any diminution of its powers and functions, was not even consulted. About the same time Sir Roundell Palmer, after a debate almost exclusively sustained by members of the legal profession, was defeated on a motion for the incorporation of his new Legal Association. Both the Attorney-General and the SolicitorGeneral spoke against the motion, and Mr. Gladstone, on behalf of the Government, declined to support the proposal. In the middle of the Session the Lord Chancellor introduced his scheme for the constitution of a Supreme Court of Appeal, which would have combined the judicial elements of the House of Lords and of the Committee of Privy Council. After a searching and hostile criticism from Lord Cairns, the measure was, with the acquiescence of the Lord Chancellor, shelved for the Session by reference to a select committee. Mr. Fawcett made a spirited and hopeless attempt to abolish the great Parliamentary law offices. Other laymen besides Mr. Fawcett have probably thought that the legal advisers of the Government ought not to devote a large portion of their time and energy to the conduct of private forensic business, but a Government which should dispense with the Parliamentary and official aid of some of the leaders of the profession would be exposed to the risk of blunders in policy and of disaster in debate. Mr. Lowe, speaking, perhaps, from personal experience, assured Mr. Fawcett, with paradoxical truth, that the practical capacity of an able man is always exactly proportioned to the business which he is required to transact; and Mr. Gladstone, after applauding his colleague for the liveliness and humour which he had introduced into the discussion, gravely assured the House that during his long experience he had known no instance in which a law officer had not found ample leisure to advise the Crown and the various departments of State. Mr. Vernon Harcourt solemnly protested against the levity which he imputed to Mr. Lowe, and denounced the slackness of the Government in promoting law reform; but the House of Commons in general seemed to be of opinion that it was sufficiently provided with occupation, and the just esteem which is accorded to Lord Hatherley is founded on other qualities than those of a zealous and successful law reformer. In the latter days of the Session Mr. Harcourt renewed the discussion on law reform by a resolution which he supported in an able and comprehensive speech. He sketched

the outlines of the great scheme of judicial reconstruction which he had more fully expounded at the Social Science Congress, and he commented with severity on the inadequate proposals of the House of Lords' committee. It is unnecessary to increase the pensions of ex-Chancellors, and there are strong objections to the proposed appointment of assessors of inferior rank, who, although titular life peers, are to be excluded from any share in the legislative functions of the House of Lords. The Solicitor-General, in answer to Mr. Harcourt, astonished a scanty audience by the statement that law reform was impossible, in consequence of the absence of popular interest in the subject, and that the Court of Chancery was approximately perfect. Mr. Fawcett naturally ridiculed the strange candour of a law officer of the Crown, and the Attorney-General was compelled to apologize for his colleague on the ground that he was exclusively familiar with the procedure of Courts of Equity. Mr. Henley appealed from lawyers to the energy of laymen, and Mr. Gladstone endeavoured to satisfy Mr. Harcourt by professing a theoretical concurrence in his opinions. The Government was indebted to the tact and prudence of the Solicitor-General for a division in which it escaped defeat by a narrow majority. The House of Commons had been content to postpone measures of law reform, but not to erect delay into a principle.

Two questions which immediately concerned the metropolis excited a keener interest than many measures of wider scope. Mr. Ayrton's Bill for the Regulation of the Parks aroused Mr. Harcourt's susceptibility by provisions for the maintenance of order in the parks which, although usual and convenient, were, as it was alleged, inconsistent with the spirit of the English Constitution.

The Government suddenly decided to introduce a clause throwing on the Houses of Parliament the responsibility of certain bye-laws for the parks. The suggestion led to an angry and animated collision between the two front benches, and produced a scene of great excitement in the House.

Mr. Hardy denounced it as a cowardly proceeding and an abandonment of responsibility, and referred to Mr. Gladstone's conduct on the Parks Bill of 1866, when, he said, he set himself against order in the parks.

This called up Mr. Gladstone in a state of great excitement, who accused Mr. Hardy of being the first on all occasions to introduce an "acid and venomous spirit" into the debates, and retorted that the feebleness and bungling of the late Government in the Hyde Park affair were the causes of the subsequent difficulties.

Mr. Disraeli joined in here, and taunted the Government with running away from its colours. He contrasted Sir G. Grey's manly support of Mr. Hardy at the time of the Parks Bill of 1866 with the sullen silence maintained night after night by Mr. Gladstone, who, he said, never uttered a word in reference to the

[1872. proceedings except in addressing a tumultuous crowd out of his own windows.

Mr. Gladstone, in answer to this, said, "I am really very sorry to intervene with respect to any gentleman's imagination; but, on a former occasion, Sheridan said that when a man drew upon his memory for his jokes he generally drew upon his imagination for his facts. The right hon. gentleman has done so, and I beg to state that with regard to what he has just said there is not a single shred or shadow of truth in it. There is no foundation, in fact, for it whatever, and when the right hon. gentleman says that after six years it is necessary to rub up one's recollection, I should strongly recommend him to improve his own memory upon the subject."

Mr. Vernon Harcourt wished, amid that wrath of chiefs, to say a few words of calm mediation. The grand alliance appeared to have broken up, and, as in the case of bandits who quarrelled over the plunder, the people of this country might now come by their own. The people of London even yet might enjoy the parks. As he had been charged by the Chief Commissioner of Works with addressing the House in a style to be heard at the base of Nelson's column in Trafalgar-square, he should now like to ask the right. hon. gentleman what he thought of what he had heard in that House during the past half-hour. Honourable gentlemen who, like himself, sat below the gangway, could not rise to anything like that level, but when they had held office for five and twenty years they might rise to something like it. If the Government consented to give the police power to make certain regulations for the parks, the difficulty might be got rid of, and the two right honourable gentlemen (Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Hardy) might kiss and be friends.

In reply to Mr. Bromley-Davenport Mr. Gladstone said he had never believed the Hyde Park meeting to be illegal, and had expected the attempt to prevent it would end in difficulties. After this the discussion calmed down.

At a later period Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Lowe reverted, with characteristic tenacity of purpose, to their claim on behalf of the Crown to a portion of the reclaimed land near the western end of the Thames Embankment. A Select Committee was induced to reverse the recommendation of the Committee of last year, and a Bill for the settlement of the disputed question was about to be passed through the House of Commons, when Mr. Harcourt moved and carried against the Government a resolution that it was not expedient to proceed farther with the matter during the present year. In this instance, whatever may be thought of the tact and judgment of the Ministers, it is impossible to doubt that their opposition to the wishes of the London Ratepayers and to the feeling of the House of Commons must be dictated by conscientious convictions. In the more serious matter of the Contagious Diseases Act, Mr. Bruce, in proposing the abandonment of the most stringent and effective provisions of the Act, scarcely

concealed his opinion that the agitation to which he yielded was ill-founded and pernicious. His indifference to the success of a measure which he disapproved probably accounted for the postponement of the further stages of the Bill to the middle of July, when it was deservedly lost.

In bringing in the promised Bill he prefaced his statement by a sketch of existing legislation on this subject and of the agitation it had excited. To illustrate the working of the Act he quoted largely from the Report of the recent Commission, adding that, though opinions might differ on the balance of their moral results, as to their physical operation in the diminution of disease and vice there could be no question. However, the Government had relunctantly come to the conclusion that it was impossible to maintain in a limited district the main principle of the Act, viz. compulsory periodical examination, while it could not be extended to the whole country. And this he held to be impossible in the present state of public opinion, of which the Acts went far in advance. Under these circumstances the Bill proposed to substitute for the present Acts certain general stringent provisions, which he explained, for clearing the streets and preserving decency, for detaining diseased persons in custody for other offences, for the more effectual protection of young girls and women, and for repressing disorderly houses and the harbouring of diseased women. Mr. Bruce did not disguise his regret at having to take what he evidently considered to be a backward step, but the advantages of the Acts, he urged, were overbalanced by the agitation which had been carried on, its flagrant exaggerations and misrepresentations, and the distressing spectacle of female modesty broken through by taking part in these discussions. He hoped that the operation of the Bill would create a fund of experience which at some future time might help to establish more efficient means of repression.

The following remarkable returns are worth quoting, issued since the sittings of the Royal Commission on these Acts, in illustration of their preventive and reformatory influence.

"In the Plymouth and Devonport district in the year 1871 no less than 58 girls between 13 and 21 years old, found in houses of ill-fame, were restored to their friends by the voluntary exertions of the police, without being in any way subjected to the operation of the Acts; 69 others of similar ages were also restored to their friends or placed in asylums on leaving hospital when cured. When the Acts are first put in operation in a district the number of these young creatures is very large, but they rapidly become few, and in a short time almost disappear. In April, 1865, the Plymouth and Devonport district had 109 under 15, and 207 under 17 years of age, but on the 31st of December last there was not one under 15 and only one under 17 years old. The daily visitation of houses of ill-fame by the police not only affords a ready means of escape to those who have the least desire to quit their mode of life, but it further prevents the keepers of these resorts from encouraging

young women to frequent them. Indeed, through the efforts of this sanitary police a woman was convicted at the last Devon Assizes, and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, for having decoyed a child of 13 from her mother's house for immoral purposes. Besides rescuing the young, the total number of young and old has been very greatly diminished. There were 1770 of these persons on the 1st of April, 1865; there were on the 31st of December, 1871, 503. These official figures satisfactorily show that a higher purpose than even the limitation of the disease is accomplished by the Acts. A most efficient machinery operates continually for the reclamation of the fallen in a manner that no voluntary organization unaided by the authority of the law can hope to equal."

An ill-considered Bill for the alteration of the jury system perished about the same time without causing any feeling of regret. Mr. Walpole's Bill for the appointment of Public Prosecutors was opposed by several legal members; and it shared the fate which attends nearly all independent attempts at legislation. Mr. Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill was carried through the second reading by a considerable majority; but many members, when they have satisfied the Dissenting portion of their constituencies by a formal vote, are content to acquiesce in the ultimate defeat of measures distasteful to the Church.

Mr. Bruce's Bill for the Regulation of Mines was more successful than endeavours which had previously been entrusted to his care. Its provisions were founded on the results of much previous inquiry. and he possessed a special knowledge of the subject. All parties were agreed in the desire to protect the lives of miners as far as possible from danger; but it was at the same time proper to avoid any vexatious interference which might tend to throw the business of mining into the hands of irresponsible and unscrupulous speculators. The number of inspectors was increased, and their powers were in some respects enlarged; and, in accordance with the precedent of the Merchant Shipping Acts, the managers of mines will henceforth be required to obtain from a public department a certificate of competency. In proof of their solicitude for the interest of working miners, Parliament provided that when wages are dependent on the quantity of "output" the amount shall be calculated by weight, and not by measure. The Bill would apply, Mr. Bruce said in introducing it, to all stratified iron mines, to shale and fire-clay mines, and will contain provisions for the employment and education of children on principles generally analogous to the Factory Acts. To ensure more stringent discipline every mine-owner is to appoint a responsible manager, who is to be registered, and who must have a certificate, which, like that of an officer of the mercantile marine, may be revoked for neglect or misconduct. All future managers are to be examined before Local Boards. Additional "general rules" are to be enacted for increasing the security of the working, which will include regulations for the more frequent inspection of machinery,