Lawyers in the English Parliament.
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LAWYERS IN THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. By Edward Porr1tt. AN old grievance arising out of the con nection of lawyers with the House of Commons was raised in a new form in the parliamentary session of 1898, when the leader of one of the Radical groups of the Opposition protested against the action of the Committee of Selection in systematically excusing practicing barristers from their full share of committee work. Lawyers at times have undoubtedly been of great service to the House, but all through its history, law yers, nevertheless, have been a somewhat troublesome element, and more resolutions of the House and more proclamations have been required to deal with gentlemen of the long robe than with men of any other class who have engaged in parliamentary service. In the early centuries of the House of Commons there were royal proclamations aimed at lawyers and intended to prevent their being chosen by the constituencies. After such measures were found to be un availing many resolutions had to be passed by the House itself to compel lawyers to discharge the parliamentary duties they had undertaken. From the earliest days of Par liament it was of advantage to lawyers to be of the House of Commons. They were al ways eager to be chosen. No one, however, who is familiar with the history of the House, can deny that while lawyers were eager for the advantages of membership they were not equally ready to undertake to the full all the duties attendant upon parliamentary service. It was largely owing to the eagerness of lawyers to be of the House of Commons that the residential qualification was abro gated, and that the law concerning the pay ment of wages to members of Parliament fell into desuetude. The landed aristocracy had its part in breaking down the early laws which enacted that members should be resi dents of the constituencies they served, and
which threw upon the constituencies the burden of paying the wages and expenses of the men they elected. But it is ventur ing very little to assert that lawyers had dis covered the advantages attendant upon a seat in the House of Commons as early, if not earlier, than the aristocracy discovered that it was of advantage to be able to nom inate members, and that the lawyers made many of the early inroads on the constitu tional usage in respect to the payment of wages. In the municipal records of the old Eng lish boroughs, and in historical manuscripts of the period prior to the Stuart dynasty, there is no lack of proof of the eagerness of the lawyers to be chosen members of the House of Commons. In a few instances wages of members of the House of Com mons were paid out of municipal funds after the Tudor dynasty had come to an end. During the Commonwealth, when there was some reversion towards the Democratic par liamentary system of the Middle Ages, and when an attempt was made to restore to the House of Commons some of its early repre sentative character, wages were paid to many members out of national funds. But before the days of the Stuart dynasty anything like a general payment of wages by the constit uencies had long ago come to an end; and by this time the residential qualification in respect to both borough and county mem bers was a usage of the past. The laws in respect to wages and residence were still on the Statute books when the first of the Stuarts came to the throne. Those in respect to wages are there yet; and it was not until the middle years of the reign of George III that the statute enacting that members should reside in the constituencies they represented was repealed. So far as being of any use this law might have been
