Parliamentary Procedure

It has been said of the English House of Commons that it has more sense than any one of its members.Professor Bryce, in his great work on the American Commonwealth, points out very many delinquencies of the American Con- gress, and he teaches us that, when judged by the wisdom of its action, our Congress compares unfavorably with Euro- pean legislatures, and especially does it compare unfavorably with the English Parliament.Yet when he compares the personnel of the American House of Representatives with that of the English House of Commons, he surprises us by saying: &dquo;Their average business capacity did not seem to me below that of the members of the House of Commons of i88o-85.&dquo;~Our standard of intelligence is lowered by the absence of a few great lights which adorn the English House; but it is raised, according to Mr. Bryce, by the absence of certain classes who, in the English House, are conspicuous for their lack of intelligence.If, then, we take without allowance all these statements, we would seem to reach this conclusion : there is something about the English House of Commons which makes its action wiser than would be the action of the wisest individual statesman ; while there is something about the American legislature which makes its action less wise than would be the action of its average member.The two books named below, and the current events in

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