father made was at the opening of the new
buildings of the Wellington Club at Reading,
of which he was president, on December 19,
1898. The ceremony was performed by the
Earl of Selborne, the son of his old opponent,
who was the principal guest at the luncheon
which followed, at which my father presided.
Two other letters, dated March 1869, may
be quoted : ā
March 2, 1869.
We had a marvellous speech last night of three
hours and twenty minutes from W. E. G., I should
think as remarkable as auy he ever made, but it
almost takes away one's breath to have such sweep-
ing schemes quietly propounded. If all this is to
be done as a matter of course, I really don't know
what institution is safe. To-morrow I think of
sleeping in town, as I am steward of a dinner to
be given to Lord George Hamilton.
March 4.
We had the fun of being in a majority of 3
before dinner yesterday, which gave a zest to the
250 IN THE HOUSE. [1866-
entertainment, which was very successful. George
Hamilton, who is a remarkably clever young fellow,
made a first-rate speech : nothing could have been
better done. In fact, I don't know such good
young fellows as the Marquis and his brothers
Claud and George. The eldest brother was Chair-
man of my London Committee. I made a speech,
as you will see, which was very well received, but
it came very late.
With respect to the threatened quarrel
between the Houses on the amendments to
the Irish Church Bill, he wrote : ā
July 23, 1869.
After I wrote yesterday I found that the good
sense of Lords Granville, Clarendon, &c, has pre-
vailed over the madness of the Prime Minister, and
that we were saved all the worry and danger of the
crisis. I was in the Lords and heard it out, and
I am inexpressibly thankful for the result. I
deplore the bill ; but if the Irish Church was to
be disestablished (and that, I think, was decided
by the nation at the election, and confirmed by the
Lords on the second reading), then I don't want
a constitutional crisis for the sake of Ā£100,000
1874.] IRISH CHURCH BILL. 251
more or less. As it is, the substantial victory is
with the Lords : they maintained the amendment
which they carried on Tuesday, and they have
secured many pecuniary advantages to the Church.
As is the case in all compromises, one hears various
opinions : some of our ultra men are discontented.
But I am glad to say the Eads. are furious. Glad-
stone showed his sense of defeat and mortification
so much as to shut himself up and be ill yesterday.
As it is, I think, as E. Palmer (with whom I was
again in the most confidential chat yesterday) said,
it is a settlement at which all good men will rejoice,
and all bad men be angry.
On the Bishop's Eesignation Bill he
writes : ā
Aug. 6, 1S69.
Gladstone was quite genial and pleasant : as
Hope remarked, he was the Gladstone of twenty
years ago, and was quite unlike his present self.
I believe he was really happy to do one good thing
among all his mischief.
On Lord Derby's death, in October 1869,
the University of Oxford chose Lord Salis-
bury to succeed as Chancellor, and his in-
252 IN THE HOUSE. [1866-
stallation at Hatfield is described by my
father in this letter to his mother, on
November 24 : ā
Nothing could be more magnificent than all the
accompaniments of the ceremonial of yesterday.
We met at King's Cross a little before five o'clock.
Six carriages were in waiting for us at Hatfield
Station at 5.42. Hardy and I came up in one
with the Bishops of Oxford and Eochester. We
found rather a large party in the house. Lord and
Lady Salisbury and nearly all the children were
in the room where we were received. Lord
Chelmsford, Sir W. and Lady Heathcote, Beresford
Hope and Lady Mildred, Lady Alderson and two
daughters, and Richmond (the E.A.) We had tea
and so forth, and then went to our rooms to robe.
Assembling in the library, we formed a procession
to a long gallery : the Vice-Chancellor, preceded
by the three University bedels with their maces,
then the doctors and the proctors, Earl Bathurst
and myself, and the other M.A.'s. The gallery is
106 feet long; it was arranged in the centre like
the. Convocation House. A grand chair of state
and a table in front, a smaller chair on the right,
two chairs on either side for the proctors, and a
1874.] LORD SALISBURY, CHANCELLOR. 253
chair and table for the registrar, and chairs down
on each side for the members of the Convocation.
The family were in a large sort of wing opening
out of the gallery, and the servants at the other
end of it. The Vice-Chancellor took the chair,
opened the Convocation, and sent the bedels to
conduct the Chancellor in. He was brought into
Convocation, and the Vice-Chancellor placed him
in the chair, the registrar having first read the
deed of election. The public orator made rather
a long speech, lamenting the loss the University
had sustained by the death of Lord Derby, and
congratulating the Chancellor. The Vice-Chan-
cellor made a congratulatory speech, and then Lord
Salisbury replied in a very neat speech and good
specimen of Latinity. Then we had a sumptuous
banquet to about forty in a grand old hall. It is
a wonderful house. We had service this morning
in chapel at 9.30, and I came up with the party
at 11.55.
December 14.
I have had a most delightful visit at Oxford.
We had a very pleasant dinner-party of 43. Last
year there was a little constraint, because the
senior censor and many of the party had been
among my opponents. Of course it was only felt
254 IN THE HOUSE. [1866-
but not expressed. But this year when I responded
for Christ Church I was very cordially greeted, and
my speech told well upon all, Liberals as well as
Conservatives. I adjourned at ten to the Deanery,
where we had such a beautiful succession of tab-
leaux by the Miss Liddells and others, and did
not break up until twelve. I do so enjoy my
visits at Oxford, and I suppose it makes me look
young, as Mrs Liddell told me the Dean's sister
took me for my son !
There are no letters at all about the
Education Act of 1870. My father had
held the unpaid post at the Ecclesiastical
Commission whilst in office in 1866 to 1868.
In April 1871 he received from Archbishop
Tait the offer of the post of Church Estates
Commissioner, which he accepted, and re-
tained until 1892.
Cannes, April 1, 1871.
My dear Mowbray, ā Mr Howes' death makes
a vacancy in the Church Commissioners' office.
There is no one to whom I feel it could be so
appropriately offered as yourself. I do trust that
you will accept the position. Your past experi-
1874.] ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONER. 255
ence, your long-tried attachment to the Church,
and the deep interest you have always taken in
its progress, point you out as the proper man, to
say nothing of your parliamentary position. It
would be a great gratification to me to find that
public duty, concurring with private friendship
in nominating one for whom I feel so great a
regard, had led me to make an appointment not
unacceptable to yourself. ā Ever yours,
A. C. Cantuar.
It may not be out of place here to say
a word or two about the Ecclesiastical Com-
mission, on which my father worked for so
many years. He has spoken of his early
friendship w r ith Archbishop Tait, and it was
a great pleasure to him to be associated for
so long in after - life with one for wdiose
character he had the greatest respect and
regard, and whose statesmanship commanded
his highest admiration. He often spoke of
Tait as the " greatest Archbishop since
Tillotson." He knew Archbishop Benson
well both at Lincoln and at Truro, and
256 IN THE HOUSE. [1866-
when resigning the Commissionership in
1892, he regretted more than anything else
the constant intercourse with the present
Archbishop, then Bishop of London, whose
sterling qualities had won his respect and
affection.
I find an amusing letter to my mother
describing the first visitation of the estates
under the charge of the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners : ā
Auckland Castle, Sept. 1871.
Isn't it curious my coming back upon the county
of Durham in a new capacity ? Act I. The Bride
and Bridegroom descending from Alston upon
Stanhope. Act II. The M.P. and his wife visit-
ing constituents. Act III. The Church Estates
Commissioner visiting estates and exercising semi-
seignorial, semi - episcopal functions throughout
Weardale. It is rather amusing what great folk we
are in Weardale, and on how many matters, small
and great, temporal and spiritual, we are appealed
to and have to give judgment. This you will say
suits me ! I find Lord Chichester a thoroughly
kind and likeable man, and we get on capitally.
1874.] OFFERS OF POSTS. 257
In 1875 he was for a moment inclined
to give up that post together with the
House of Commons, as he received the
following letter from Mr Disraeli : ā
Private. 2 Whitehall Gardens, Nov. 1, 1875.
Dear Mowbray, ā There are two important
posts in the Civil Service now vacant : the First
Commissioner of Charities and of C.S. Examina-
tions. I have as yet offered them to no one, but
either is at your service. I have no wish to see
you leave the House of Commons, but quite the
reverse ; for I think your presence there alike
advantageous to the public interest and those of
our party : but I make you this offer from a sense
of duty, and as some acknowledgment of your
claims, which always occur to me. ā Yours faith-
fully, D.
Both posts were declined, and the House
of Commons became even more than before
the great interest of his life.
The work on the Commission entailed
constant attendance during- the greater
part of the year and quite endless corre-
R
258 IN THE HOUSE. [1866-
spondence, and my father attended the
Thursday Boards so regularly that I do
not think he missed one (save through
illness), except when he went to South
Shields in June 1890 to open a park there,
and even this absence was caused by Ec-
clesiastical Commission work. The park
had been partly given and partly sold by
the Commissioners, and the corporation
therefore invited my father to open it, and.
gave him a "right royal reception," as he
described it.
In April 1883 Mr Arthur Arnold made
an attack on the Commission in the House
of Commons, which caused my father con-
siderable anxiety before the motion came
on. His relief, therefore, when the motion
collapsed was great, and he wrote of it as
follows to my sister : ā
April 1, 1883.
As you know how anxious I have been about
Arthur Arnold's motion, you will be glad to hear
1874.] RETIRES FROM COMMISSION. 259
that it collapsed after general benediction upon
the Ecclesiastical Commission from everybody, in-
cluding Arnold himself, and I returned to dinner
very jubilant and ready to dance round the table.
I made a long speech, which both sides said was
an excellent vindication of the Commission, and
which took very well with the House, so we are
safe for another year. I think that a Committee,
with the very arduous labours which it would
have imposed upon me, would have shortened my
days.
After an attack of rheumatism in Novem-
ber 1890, my father found the cold journeys
to town during the winter very trying ; so
after considerable hesitation he decided that
the time had come for him to give up
the hard work of the Commission, and on
December 1, 1892, he took leave of his
colleagues. There was a large gathering of
bishops, and of members of the Commission,
including the Home Secretary, Mr Asquith,
and Mr G. Leveson Gow T er (Controller of the
Household), the unpaid Commissioner of the
260 IN THE HOUSE. [1866-
time. My father felt very deeply all the
kind words spoken on the occasion, and the
letters which he received. He wrote with
respect to them : ā
I have thanked the Archbishop for his charming
letter, but it really is too kind and quite painful to
receive, for I have done nothing but what any man
with a clear head and tolerable ability might have
done.
I have put all these notes about the
Commission together, and must return to
earlier years for parliamentary reminiscen-
ces ; but first I may quote two letters
describing a two days' visit to Paris which
my father made in July 1871 : ā
Paris, July 9.
I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying
my holiday. I had a most perfect crossing, and
reached Paris to the minute. I was due at 7.50,
and I was in my cab and out of the station at
7.51, which being 7.41 English reckoning, made me
feel that I had gained time. We saw Prussians
1874.] PARIS, 1871. 261
keeping guard at the railway station at Amiens
and one other place, lots of military wagons about,
otherwise small traces of the war ā except in one
place where the line had been broken, and they
had constructed a temporary wooden bridge. As
I drove from the station I saw scarcely a trace of
the mischief done until I saw the Place Vendome
so desolate, with all but the base of the column
gone. I came to Meurice's, not liking to go to the
Grand, as it was a hospital during the siege. I
found it very empty ; indeed I have only met one
Englishman whom I know, Admiral Duncombe.
I soon dressed, and I never rested until after 9 P.M.
In fact, I believe the old gentleman of fifty-six was
just as active as the young man of twenty-two
when he first came into Paris on a fine June
morning in 1837. The day was perfection ā hot,
clear, bright, and sunny. It is a most wonderful
sight. There must have been a great deal of
most diabolical thought and ingenuity in providing
materials, for never was destruction so complete.
The Hotel de Ville is thoroughly done for: it is
a most striking ruin, but nothing can be rebuilt.
The old portion of the Tuileries is the same, only
the new portion built by the Emperor seems to
have resisted the elements better. A great num-
262 IN THE HOUSE. [1866-
ber of the public offices and official residences of
Ministers and a great many private houses through
the Kue Eivoli are utter wrecks. No church seems
to have suffered. I believe there is one, but I have
not been there. Notre Dame is unhurt. The
Sainte Chapelle escaped by a miracle, for the
Palais de Justice, in the centre of which it stands,
was burned in the most complete way. I had a
glorious view from the top of the Tower of Notre
Dame. In the afternoon I went to St Cloud. I
went by road by Passy, and everywhere the ruined
houses told tales of the Prussian siege. St Cloud
is the most desolate ruin you can imagine : three
years ago when I was there it was all bright and
glorious. Napoleon and Eugenie were residing
there, and there was a great Sunday fair. Now
it is annihilated ! No one clears the ruins, as
they have done to some extent in Paris ; the
beautiful trim gardens have been untouched all
the year. The orange-trees were burnt standing :
there they stand in their boxes, which are unburnt !
I never saw anything so melancholy. The view
from it was superb, and carried one over the
history of the siege. Ports Bicetre, Vanves, Issy,
Montrouge, &c, all familiar spots in sight. I came
back by the Seine, and dined at the Grand Hotel
1874.] PARIS, 1871. 263
ā a large party, and as splendid as ever. The
Emperor is gone everywhere, the Comte de Chani-
bord and the Orleans princes are in the windows.
Ordinary Paris seems nearly as busy as ever, cabs
and omnibuses in profusion, few private carriages ;
but the whole aspect is more like itself than I
expected, and they clean and repair and rebuild
so rapidly that those who do not come soon will
see little.
July 11.
I hope you duly received my letter written in
Paris. I reached the cliffs of Dover all right this
morning at 4.30, and was in Onslow Gardens by
7.30. I had a short turn into bed, and then we
had Earl Stanhope, the Dean of Ch. Ch., G-athorne
Hardy, and Wilson Patten at breakfast at 10.
Lord Salisbury was prevented from coming after
accepting, and Sir M. Hicks-Beach forgot his en-
gagement. I have most thoroughly enjoyed an
open-air life for three days and four nights. I
went to Meudon, Versailles, and Fort Valerien, as
well as the other places, and did a great deal in a
limited time. I am so glad to have been. I have
been longing to go for six months past. I am
heartily Imperialist. They are properly punished
for getting rid of the best sovereign they have had.
264 IN THE HOUSE. [1866-1874.
No gold, little gas, passports back, all kinds of
retrograde things ; but I see no chance whatever
of the restoration of the Empire. I am quite sur-
prised how fresh I am to-day, but the trip has
taken one quite out of oneself.
XII.
THE WOEK OF COMMITTEES OF THE
HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1874-1899
1874-1899.] THE WORK OF COMMITTEES. 267
XII.
THE WORK OF COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE
OF COMMONS, 1874-1899.
COMMITTEE OF STANDING ORDERS ā COMMITTEE OF SELECTION ā
PRIVATE BILLS ā GRAND COMMITTEES.
After the oeneral election of 1874 Colonel
Wilson Patten was created Lord Winmar-
leigh, and the post of Chairman of the Com-
mittees of Standing Orders and Selection
became vacant. To that post my father
succeeded, having been a member of both
committees since 1863, and from that time
until February 1899 he remained chairman
of these two important committees. At the
commencement of each session those who
follow closely the work of the House of
268 THE WORK OF COMMITTEES. [1874-
Commons will note such a paragraph as the
following, which always appears at the be-
ginning; of each session : ā
Feb. 14, 1899.
Ordered that the Select Committee on Standing
Orders do consist of 13 members. Mr Buchanan,
Sir Wm. Coddington, Mr John Edward Ellis, Sir
Thomas Esmonde, Mr Halsey, Mr Humphreys
Owen, Mr James Lowther, Sir John Lubbock, Sir
John Mowbray, Mr Wm. Eedmond, Sir Mark
Stewart, and Mr Whitmore were accordingly nom-
inated members of the committee.
Selection : ā
Ordered that the Committee of Selection do
consist of 11 members. Mr Sydney Buxton, Sir
John Dorrington, Sir W. Hart Dyke, Dr Farquhar-
son, Mr Halsey, Mr Justin M'Carthy, Mr Albert
Spicer, Mr Philip Stanhope, Mr Wharton, Mr
Wodehouse, and the Chairman of Select Committee
on Standing Orders, were accordingly nominated
members of committee.
It may be noticed as a curious fact that
Sir John Mowbray's name does not appear
in this second list. The Committee on
1899.] STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE. 269
Standing Orders in theory select their own
chairman from among their own members,
and the person so selected becomes ex officio
chairman of the Committee of Selection.
Practically, the person to be chosen as
chairman of both committees is designated
by the leader of the House before the
committees are nominated. At the open-
ing of the session of 1899 Sir John
would have been glad to have been re-
lieved of the burden of the Committee
on Standing Orders, but by the Standing-
Orders themselves the two offices were
inseparable.
Probably of the few who read or notice
so much, still fewer realise in any measure
what an important part in the working of
the House is done by these bodies which
meet every Tuesday and Friday afternoon
during the session.
The Standing Orders Committee was in
former clays considered the more important,
270 THE WORK OF COMMITTEES. [1874-
and to it are referred all bills which are
found by the Examiners of Bills to have
omitted to comply with the Standing Orders
of the House of Commons with respect to
Private Bill Legislation. The work is
mostly technical, and the irregularities are
usually in respect of either the time when
the bills were deposited by the promoters
of railway, canal, and other bills of the
kind, or inaccuracies in the plans of the
railways, &c, or the way in which the
bills have been drawn. The committee
has to decide whether the irregularities
complained of can be excused by circum-
stances, or whether they are intentional
and wilful or of a grave nature, and to
consider whether or not the Standing Orders
may be dispensed with. If the Standing
Orders Committee decide that the Standing
Orders should not be dispensed with, a
report to that effect is made to the House,
and the bill is lost for the session.
1899.] COMMITTEE OF SELECTION. 271
The chairmanship of the Committee of
Selection is now much more important, and
the duties have grown year by year until
the chairman and the committee do an
amount of work of which the world outside
parliamentary circles is quite ignorant, ā
work which requires a skilled knowledge of
the House, of its rules, and of the capacities
and qualities of almost every member, to-
gether with judgment, great tact, and con-
stant attendance at Westminster. In the
earlier years of my father's time the work
was chiefly concerned with Private Bill
Committees, but by degrees it has become
more frequent to appoint what are called
hybrid committees to deal with the greater
Private Bills. These are Committees on
Private Bills which the House is deter-
mined somewhat to control by extraordinary
rules ā that is, causing the committees in
question to be composed of seven or more
members, half to be nominated by the
272 THE WORK OF COMMITTEES. [1874-
House, half by the Committee of Selection.
The first half ā those nominated by the
House ā are interested parties ; the others
ā nominated by the Committee of Selection
ā are disinterested parties. In Private Bill
Committees of the ordinary type all are
disinterested parties, and a declaration to
that effect is required from every member
serving on them. In the Committee of
Selection, party politics are unknown ; no
division has ever taken place in the com-
mittee, and the fear that one might take
place made my father almost ill and quite
unhappy. On Standing Orders there are
not unfrequently divisions. Private Bill
Committees consist of four members, two
from the Government side and two from
the Opposition, and towards the end of the
session it is not always possible to maintain
even this proportion.
At the beginning of a session the Com-
mittee of Selection form the opposed Private
1899.] PRIVATE BILLS. 273
Bills ā i.e., Gas, Water, and Railway Bills
ā into groups, after hearing from the parlia-
mentary agents their views on the proposals
submitted to them. Perhaps the largest
portion of the duties of the Committee of
Selection is the appointment of the chair-
man and three other members of the various
groups of opposed Gas and Water Bills
which are introduced each session. To them
may be added the selection of the Railway
and Canal Committee, of about ten members
or more, which select among themselves the
chairmen of the various groups which deal
with opposed Railway Bills, the Committee
of Selection adding the other three members.
There are often twenty to thirty of these
committees to be " manned " in a session ;
members are constantly being discharged at
the termination of a bill in their group,
and their places have to be filled, sometimes
at a moment's notice. This and other causes
render necessary the daily attendance of the
s
274 THE WORK OF COMMITTEES. [1874-
Ohairman of the Committee of Selection, who
obtains at the next meeting of the Com-
mittee of Selection the sanction of the com-
mittee to any action he has taken since their
last meeting, during the session of Parlia-
ment. There are other not less important
duties which devolve on the committee ā the
preparation of a panel every week, from
which panel members are taken for the
above-named Private Bill Committee. Each
panel is composed of three times as many
members as may be wanted for the setting
up of each new committee, besides a certain
number to fill up vacancies that occur in
sitting groups. The preparation of these
panels is a considerable labour, and towards
the end of the session they are extremely
difficult to construct, as members are apt
to complain if they are unduly worked, as
they consider, and their names appear more
than once on a weekly panel during the
session.
1899.] GRAND COMMITTEES. 275
To those who know the inside of the
House of Commons, but not perhaps to the
constituents of some members, it is needless
to explain that no member receives any re-
muneration for sitting on a committee, and
that long speeches, whatever "refreshers"
they may bring to counsel engaged, bring
no refreshment to those on the other side
of the table.
But in 1882 the work and the respon-
sibility of the Committee of Selection were
greatly increased by Resolutions of the
House that two Standing Committees should