THE SESSION OF 1871: AN EPITOME OF ITS LABOURS AND RESULTS. CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION. IT has been frequently asserted that the Parliamentary Session of 1871 was comparatively unfruitful, and produced but a scanty crop of useful legislative measures. Obviously the proper test of this assertion is an examination of the work actually done by the two Houses during the protracted sittings which were commenced by a Royal Speech in February, and terminated by the prorogation in August. The interval is said to have been occupied in sterile discussion; but vague general assertions upon a subject of such gravity are not worth much. It is easy to convey an impression that the task of Parliament was left to a great extent incomplete. The events of a session are so multifarious—crowd upon each other in such rapid succession, that they are apt to confuse the public mind; and the recollection of the earlier proceedings is readily effaced by those which follow. To estimate rightly the labours of Parliament in 1871 we must carefully examine, and take stock, so to speak, of the results accomplished. The brief retrospect attempted in the following pages is almost entirely confined to a bare narrative of the principal transactions. Thus much, however, may be B said preliminarily, that the Statute Book of 1871 contains a large number of Acts, which, though of great practical importance, were not calculated to excite much popular or newspaper discussion. The Queen's Speech of February 9, after adverting to Foreign Affairs, directed attention to Bills upon the following subjects: 1. Army Reform. 2. Religious Tests in the Universities. 3. Ecclesiastical Titles. 4. Trade Combinations. 5. Courts of Justice and Appeal. 6. Adjustment of Local Burdens. 7. Sale of Intoxicating Liquors. 8. Secret Voting. 9. Education in Scotland. This Parliament legislated during the session upon seven of these nine subjects-with respect to the first, second, third, and fourth, by passing statutes of a permanent and complete character; with respect to the fifth, sixth, and seventh, by temporary or partial measures. enumeration, however, relates of the work accomplished. enactments, many of them of an extremely elaborate and intricate character; and it may be safely said that there is scarcely one of them which does not affect some large and important class of the community. to only a small portion There were in all 117 |