The performance of parliamentary duties is proved not to be inconsistent with the contemporaneous prosecution of the most laborious avocations. A vigorous performance of the general business of life imparts earnestness to every occupation, and it is as belonging to that business that parliamentary duties are best executed. The constant meddling of a body of men, paid for making laws, and acting under the notion that they are bound to do something for their salaries, would in this country be intolerable; not to speak of the far more serious evil, in the diminution of that respect with which the House of Commons is now regarded. That professional labours of the most unremitting kind may be prosecuted without neglecting the duties of Parliament, is shown by the example of lawyers in extensive practice, and is proved by the amount of work—legislative, judicial, and of other kinds—which men like Lord Eldon, and others, before and since his time, have been able to accomplish. Few men would be found, whose services are of any value to the State, who would not be able to afford them without abandoning their other business and occupations.
If, on the other hand, the nation be served by its representatives without pecuniary reward, it should not require from them any pecuniary sacrifices which a prudent or an honest, and, it may be added, a comparatively poor man, is not in a condition to make. The representative house is the House of the Commons. The Commons are composed of all classes, rich and poor. The doors should be opened, to the extreme width of their portals, to admit the best and worthiest; and every impediment which clogs and obstructs their entry, is a mischief which ought to be swept away.
c. 10, p. 217, 2nd ed. The rejection of the Bill which proposed the payment of salaries to certain peers, for the performance of their judicial duties in the House of Lords, was regarded with much (and not unreasonable) satisfaction by many, on similar grounds.
