1938-08-13 — Page 18

14

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Hear Nothing

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PRIVILEGE-

HE major privileges of the House of Commons иге the secret of its independence. It would cease to be a free assembly if its members were not protected in their right to say what they wish to say, and in their right to be safeguarded from arrest,

These privileges are all of them of extreme antiquity. They are claimed on behalf of the Commons by the Speaker, and enforced "through" nim. Their history is the record of the struggle against the power of the Crown to prevent the tree expression of, and the.com-

of remedy for.

the pulsion krievances of its subjects.

The right to freedom from arrest is almost an ancient as English his- tory; though it has never been held to apply to indictable offences. It has been used to prevent members of Parliament being impeded in the pursuit of their Parliamentary duties.

In 1003, for example, the arrest of Sir Thomas Shirley led to the Commons demanding his relcase; when the Warden of the Fleet re- fused to accede to this demand, he was committed to the Tower and was only net free after Sir Thomas had been released.

So far does this right extend that if a man were elected to Parliament while in custody, he could be released at once, on the demand of the Speaker, assuming that he was not under arrest elther for an indictable offence or for contempt of court..

The right to freedom of speech goes back to Haxey's case in 1907, and has been constantly reafirmed against divors attempts, espec!- ally under the Tudors and Stuarts, to invade it.

Haxey bad Introduced a Bill to diminish royal expenditure. Richard II in fury secured his con- demnation as a traitor, and he was only saved from death by the inter- -position of Archbishop Arundel.

Two years later Richard I was himself of the throne, and the "Just Parliament" of Henry IV secured the reversal of the deci-

the

FACTS

BY HAROLD LASKI

sion as contrary to the law and the course that ought to be fol- lowed in Parlament.

In Shodo's case (1513) a mem- ber of Parliament was imprisoned for introducing Bills to regulate the tin minca in Cornwall. Parila- ment thereupon declared that legal proceedings" for any Blil speaking. reasoning

ог declaring of any matter or matters concerning the Parliament to be communed or treated of should be utterly vold and of none effect."

It la enacted under William and

freedom "tho

of. Mary that apecoh and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be im- peached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament."

The law is unmistakable that tho House of Commons nione can deal with the actions of its own members in regard to its own pro- ceedings; there could not be a graver breach of privilege than for any other person, minister or general, admiral or judge, to attempt to deal with them."

that Every schoolboy knows Charles I's attempt to arrest the Five Members was £ vital preliminary to the Civil War. Even the action of George III of dismissing military officers for opposing the Government in the House of Commons was described by Edmund Burke as a danger- ous and unconstitutional practice.

Broadly, it may be said that for nearly six centuries the House of Commons has resisted overy attempt of outside authority in any way to impede the right of its

do their duty no members to members in any way they please, aubject only to the approval of the House Itself.

For this purpose, it is, and 11 must be, if it in to be a free House of Commons, fully and unmistak- ably a sovereign body, whose juris- diction cannot be impeded or im- paired by any other authority in the realm.

The Bandys case, therefore, goes to the root of a controversy which lies at the heart of Parliamentary freedom. It raises the questions:

(1) Can any authority but the House itself (through the Speaker) interfere with the right of a mem- bor to put questions based upon information which comes to him?

(2) Can Acts of Parliament which threaten penalties in rela- tion to ocial secrets be used to threaten a member with those penalties if he choose to exercise this right.

(8) Can the fact that a member of Parliament is also a member of the Territorial Forces justify an attempt to use the jurisdiction of the military against him for an act which flows not from his capacity as a military officer, but from his function as a member of Parlia- ment?

These are the questions which the Committee on Privileges and the Select Committee will bo It is to answer. called upon obvious that they are vital ques- Hons.

If they are answered in the affirmative, the only comment one can make is that there is then n wide realm of conduct in which

By Paul

HOW IT BEGAN Berdanier

PETTIFOGGER

IN EARLY ENGLISH SLANG "FOG" MEANT "TO HUNT IN A SERVILE MANNER."A SMALL LAWYER WHO HUNG AROUND THE COURTS AND FAWNED ON PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS WAS HENCE CALLED A "PETTIFOGGER”FROM FRENCH "PETIT (LITTLE) AND ENGLISH. SLANG "FOG.” IT STILL MEANS A SMALL DISHONEST ATTORNEY

King's Court

THAT'S THE CHEESE

IN THE BENGALESE LANGUAGE AS SPOKEN AT CALCUTTA “CHIZ”. MEANS "THING” AND IS PRONOUNCED "CHEESE ANGLO-INDIANS MIXING THE TWO LANGUAGES WOULD SAY? "THAT'S THE CWIZ FOR ME"

WHICH WAS FINALLY ADOPTED. INTO ENGLISH SLANG AS "THAT'S THE CHEESE.”

SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1938.

member of Parliament is, in rela- tion to that function, subject to the discretion (perhaps indiscretion is a better word) of the executive power.

Certainly the use of a military Court to interrogate a member of Parliament concerning matters arising out of what he has done as a member is unheard of in the whole course of English history.

There are many reserve officers and Territorial officers in the House of Commons. A suminons to appear before a military court might be used as a means, under military law, of preventing them from performing their duties in the House of Commons whenever I pleased the Executive to feci dis- pleasure at their conception of what those duties involved,

The grave view the Speaker has taken of the Bandys case, especi- ally in its new phase, is therefore Inescapable. He could not do other- wise without betraying the obliga- tion to the House under which he lics.

It must be added with emphasis that this is a question independent of all. Party considerations. Mr. llore-Belisha had ample protec- tion, without any of the expedients to which he has resorted, against inconvenience from Mr. Sandys.

(1) He could have represented to the Speaker his view that the proposed question was onc not proper to the Order Paper of the House in view of its contents: in that event the Speaker would have made his decision.

(2) He could have refused, if to the question were allowed, answer it on the ground that it was not in the public interest to do so. The Speaker would have protected him had he made that refusal.

(3) He could have sent for Mr. Sandys privately and explained to him why he did not wish a public discussion of the subject-matter of the question. That is done fro- quently in the House.

Mr. Hore-Belisha has done none of these things. Instead, he has chosen two ways of procedure, either of which is a grave threat to the independence of the House of Commons.

Once the executive power can determine the mits of Parlia- mentary freedom, whether as to persons or as to utterances, there is an end of Parlamentary tree- dam. Here we are'in a realm of precedents that have not been challenged for nearly three hun-

dred years.

Their result has been to make the House of Commons the great assembly that it is. Unless they are maintained in undiminished vigour its ability to serve the people of this country is stricken into Impotence,

What, therefore, is at stake in the matter of a Parliamentary ques- tion is the basic safeguard of fres government in this country. The importance of the declalon the Committee on Privileges must take transcends, therefore, either the careers of the Ministers involved, or that of the Government for whom they have acted.

The Committee on Privileges exists to safeguard the historic rights of members of Parliament. Thereby it exists to protect the claim of the House of Commons freely to represent the people of Great Britain.

COUNT THE “TELEGRAPHS

EVERYWHERE.

THE LAST

OF THE MELVILLES

The death was announced re- cently of Frederick Melville, last of the Melville brothers, of Lyceum fame. Their great ser vices to the thealre are recalled. in this article.

BY CLIVE MACMANUS

in

THE name of Melville had become synonymous modern minds' with Melodrama.

Took the Girls Who Actually Wrong Turnings and Wrecked Homes and were the victims of Dirty Work nt the Crona Ronds were the last examples of an expiring tradition, and it is several years since any of the Melville brothers was associated velih them.

Pantomime rather thun melodrama was the Lyceum strong suit in recent years so strong that this year it continued far into the spring.

Melville pantomines have kept to the old traditions, as their dramos did. No musical comedy sophistica-

about them, and 710 "smartness,"

tion

revue

TRUE TO LEGEND

YCEUM pantomimes are pantomimes-strong, soild, spectacular affairs. They last nearly four hours, they have elaborate transformation scenes and ballets. They have a whole band of really mirth-provoking comedians, and they have on emasculated but veritable Harlequinade, with crackers thrown by the clown to the children.

These pantomimes have retaine

every the rhymned couplets that pantonime should have, and even the most highly paid and individual of comedians has had to learn those evuplets and repent them faithfully -or the Melville's would know the reason why.

The pantomime story has plwegs been true to the nursery legend. When you took the children to the Lyceum you could be sure that they would enjoy an entertainment. Da a Christmas fruity and Toneful as rake and one more wholesome.

There was something very English about the Melvilles and their work. It was hearty, full-blooded stuff. The

girls and women of the dramas (except when Disgraces To Their Sex) were gentle, the villains un- doubtedly villainous, the heroes truly herole. (Did not both Godfrey Tearle and Henry Ainley once And The low a place anong them?) comedy men were comic without ever being low.

Murder with the Melvilles may not have been one of the Fine Arts. It was at least forcible and frighten-

Nothing to laugh at, in fact.

Ing.

Why has murder become a farce in the theatre to-day?

Really nasty thugs, such as the fangsters in "Death on the Table," are made far too likeable. The actual murder in that very funny play is less thrilling than the operu- tion scene which precedes it.

In the latest circus drama, “The Painted Smule," a body lies in the middle of the stage with a long knife protruding from it. Other characters stand round with less concern than they might be expected to show it the dead man were the victim of an enraged lion or a motor-car collision. Three times nightly is the victim murdered in "I Killed the Count"- and the play becomes tunnier and funnier.

This is all very well. Some of us And ourselves sighing for the days when Crime, was Crime, and Bad Men got what was coming to them.

LESS MORBID NOW WHAT is the explanation of this modern callousness? Are sudlences to blame? Perhaps it Is due to this Age of Light, which has abolished the eerie, flickering lamps of the buck streets, those dark, hushed by ways through which one burried instinctively. Light may have made Life less morbld. to Go Afraid Nobody to-day is Home in the Dark. There is no Dark to go home in.

Or does the fault He with pro- ducers? Even the Melvilles, as I have sald, had ceased to produce ther own parikular brand of melodrama. The Inst Lyceum drama had its thrills, but they were in the modern styla.

It is curious to think how young the Melvilles were in their great days, when the brothers and sisters, and less than 30 years old, wrote and produced and neted together at the old Standard, Shoreditch.

remember as a boy sitting in the wings

ngs while the Girl Who Lost Her Character or Took the Wrong Turn- Ing or whot not smashed all the furniture in the drawing-room, and Melvilica hustened on and off the reene in a dozen different roles.

RICH OLD, DRAMAS

THEY brought zest to their work and belleved in it. They were clannish and loyal to those who worked for them, even though the anlaries they paid would not interest

In a humblewood

cruder way they lind ns great a pride in the calling as Irving himself. They gave great pleasure to a grent many people, and did nobody any harm.

The Theatre to-day would be the richer for more managers of the Melville brand, and the Drama to- diny might not be the poorer for some of the red blond and

punch behind those old plays,

Simple virtues and simple villainies are out of fushion. The theatre is mortally afraid of being theatrical. You must go to the waxworks for Your Horrors now,

ELMO

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