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Irish House Of Commons

Irish House of Commons

).]] The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland, that existed from mediæval times until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a very restrictive franchise. Roman Catholics were debarred from sitting in the Irish parliament, even though they comprised the vast majority of the Irish population. Until the 1790s they were also forbidden to participate in elections to the Commons. The British apponted Irish executive, under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was not answerable to the House of Commons but to the British government. However the Chief Secretary for Ireland was usually a member of the Irish parliament. In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker who, in the absence of a government chosen from and answerable to the Commons, was the dominant political figure in the parliament. The House of Commons was abolished when the Irish parliament merged with its British counterpart in 1801 under the Act of Union.

Famous members

- Henry Grattan - went on to serve as an Irish member of the United Kingdom House of Commons.
- Hon. Arthur Wellesley - later became Duke of Wellington, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He represented his family borough of Trim, in County Meath from 1790-1796.
- William Connolly - a past Speaker, Connolly remains today one of the most widely known figures ever to be produced by the Irish parliament. He is famous not just for his role in parliament but also for his great wealth that allowed him to build one of Ireland's greatest Georgian houses, Castletown House.

Parliament of Ireland

:This article is about the legislature abolished in 1801. For alternative meanings, see Irish parliament (disambiguation). Irish parliament (disambiguation) The Parliament of Ireland was a legislature that existed from mediæval times until 1800. It comprised the King of Ireland and two chambers: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Lords consisted of members of the Irish peerage while the Commons was directly elected, albeit on a very restricted franchise. Over the centuries, the Irish parliament met in a number of locations both inside and outside of Dublin - the first place of definitive date and place was Castledermot, County Kildare on 18 June, 1264. Among its most famous meeting places were Dublin Castle, the Bluecoat School, Chichester House and, its final permanent home, the Irish Parliament House in College Green.

Early History

The Irish Parliament was originially founded in the 13th century to represent the English community in the Lordship of Ireland. The native or Gaelic Irish were officially considered outlaws and were not eligible to either vote or stand for office. However, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the English presence in Ireland shrunk dramatically, eventually shrinking to a small fortified enclave around Dublin known as the Pale. The Parliament thereafter became essentially the forum for the Pale community until the 17th century. The Palesmen themselves encouraged the Kings of England to take a more direct role in the affairs of Ireland, to protect them from the Gaelic Irish and "Gaelicised" Old English lords. In 1494, the Parliament encouraged the passing of Poyning's Law which subordinated the Irish Parliament to the English one, so that the Irish Parliament could not be bullied by the powerful landed families in Ireland like the Earl of Kildare into passing laws that pursued the agendas of the different dynastic factions in the country. The role of the Parliament changed after 1541, when Henry VIII declared the Kingdom of Ireland and emabarked on the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland. Thereafter, the Gaelic Irish lords had their positon legalised and were entitled to attend the Irish Parliament as equals (although most members continued to be of English descent). However the Protestant Reformation introduced by the Tudor monarchs changed the nature of Irish politics, as almost all of the population of Ireland remained Roman Catholic. The native community had several disputes in Parliament with the English authorities in Ireland over the introduction of Protestantism as the state religion and over paying for the long-running English wars of conquest in the country. For this reason, in 1613-15, constituencies for the Parliament were fixed so that English and Scottish Protestant settler's representatives became the majority in the Irish Parliament. After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics were barred from voting or attending the Parliament altogether in the Cromwellian Act of Settlement 1652. They never fully recovered these rights for the remainder of the Parliament's existence. Under the reign of James II of England, who was himself a Roman Catholic, Irish Catholics briefly recovered their pre-eminent position in the Irish Parliament. During the Williamite war in Ireland (1688-91), they were once again a majority in Parliament and forced James to pass legislation granting legislative autonomy to the Parliament and a restitution of the lands confiscated from Catholics in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. However, the Jacobite defeat in this war meant that under William III of England, Protestants were returned to their dominant position in Irish society and the Penal Laws against Catholics were applied with even greater strictness than before. However, it should be noted that Irish Catholics still voted in elections down to 1728, when they were explicitly banned from doing so. Presbyterians also had a subservient status in Parliament, as after 1707 they could hold seats, but not hold public office. After this point, the Irish Parliament was again the preserve of a colonial English minority, though now a new, Protestant (Anglican) one. The Anglo-Irish Parliament did asert its independence from London several times however. In the early 18th century it successfully lobied for Parliament to be called every two years (as opposed to on the whim of the monarch) and shortly thereafter, it declared itself to be in session permanently (mirroring developments in the English Parliament). The Irish Parliament also agitated for greater powers relative to the English Parliament and for better Terms of Trade with Britain.

Powers

After 1707, Ireland was to varying degrees subordinate to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Parliament of Ireland only had control over legislation, while the executive branch of government, under the Lord Lieutenant, answered to the British government in London. Furthermore the Penal Laws meant that Catholics, who constituted the vast majority of Irish people, were not permitted to sit in, or participate in elections to, the parliament; Poyning's Law made the Irish legislature subordinate to the Parliament of Great Britain, by forbidding the Irish parliament to discuss any bill without the British legislature's prior approval. In 1782, following agitation by major parliamentary figures, most notably Henry Grattan, the Irish parliament's authority was greatly increased. Under what became known as the Constitution of 1782 the restrictions imposed by Poyning's Law were removed. A little over a decade later Catholics were given the right to cast votes in elections to the parliament, although they were still debarred from membership.

Organisation

Constitution of 1782).]] The House of Lords was presided over by the Lord Chancellor, who sat on the woolsack, a large seat stuffed with wool from each of the three lands of England, Ireland and Scotland. In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker who, in the absence of a government chosen from and answerable to the Commons, was the dominant political figure in the parliament. Speaker Connolly remains today one of the most widely known figures produced by the Irish parliament. Much of the public ceremonial in the Irish parliament mirrored that of the British Parliament. Sessions were formally opened by the Speech from the Throne by the Lord Lieutenant, who, it was written "used to sit, surrounded by more splendour than His Majesty on the throne of England" . The Lord Lieutenant, when he sat on the throne, sat beneath a canopy of crimson velvet. At the state opening, MPs were summoned to the House of Lords from the House of Commons chamber by Black Rod, a royal official who would "command the members on behalf of His Excellency to attend him in the chamber of peers". Sessions of Parliament drew many of the wealthiest of Ireland's Anglo-Irish elite to Dublin, particularly as sessions often coincided with the social season, (January to 17 March) when the Lord Lieutenant presided in state over state balls and drawing rooms in the Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle. Leading peers in particular flocked to Dublin, where they lived in enormous and richly decorated mansions initially on the northside of Dublin, later in new Georgian residences around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square. Their presence in Dublin, along with large numbers of servants, provided a regular boost to the city economy.

Abolition

In 1801 the Parliament of Ireland was abolished entirely, when the Act of Union created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and merged the British and Irish legislatures into a single Parliament of the United Kingdom. The union arose from a number of strains in Anglo-Irish relationships. In 1798 British rule in Ireland was shaken by the failed United Irishmen rebellion. The crisis over the 'madness' of King George III produced tension, as both of the King's parliaments in each of his two kingdoms possessed the theoretical right to nominate a regent, without the requirement that they choose the same person. Nonetheless the situation was resolved when both chose the Prince of Wales. The result of these tensions was a British government decision that the entire relationship between Britain and Ireland should be fundamentally changed. Constitutionally it was necessary for the Act of Union to be passed by both the British and Irish parliaments before it could become law. The Irish parliament was therefore effectively asked to vote for its own abolition. After one failed attempt, the passage of the act in the Irish parliament was finally achieved, albeit with the mass bribery of members of both houses, who were awarded British and United Kingdom peerages and other 'encouragements'. On 1st January 1801 the Kingdom of Ireland and its parliament ceased to exist. It was the last legislature in Irish history to have power to legislate for the whole island. Part of the deal involved the concession of Catholic emancipation, which meant the removal of all remaining discriminatory laws against Catholics and faiths other than the established Church of Ireland. This had long been resisted by the Irish Parliament. However, following the Union, King George III blocked emancipation, arguing that it conflicted with his coronation oath to uphold the Protestant faith. Emancipation was finally granted in 1829. In the 1830s and 1840s nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell lead a unsuccessful campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union and the restoration of 'Grattan's parliament'. Those advocating repeal insisted that Catholics be granted the right to sit in any restored parliament.

Footnotes

Unsourced eighteenth century quote used in the Bank of Ireland, College Green, an information leaflet produced by the Bank of Ireland about the Irish Houses of Parliament.

Irish House of Lords

The Irish House of Lords was the upper house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from mediæval times until 1800. It was abolished along with the Irish House of Commons by the Act of Union. The House of Lords was presided over by the Lord Chancellor, who sat on the woolsack, a large seat stuffed with wool from each of the three lands of England, Ireland and Scotland. At the state opening of the Irish parliament Members of Parliament were summoned to the House of Lords from the House of Commons chamber by Black Rod, a royal official who would "command the members on behalf of His Excellency to attend him in the chamber of peers" Sessions were formally opened by the Speech from the Throne by the Lord Lieutenant, who sat on the throne beneath a canopy of crimson velvet. Following the Act of Union, the peerage of Ireland elected 28 of their number to sit in the United Kingdom House of Lords. This practice ended in 1922 with the establishment of the Irish Free State. Other Irish peers were able to stand for election to the UK House of Commons. Today the 18th century Irish Parliament building on College Green in Dublin is an office of the commercial Bank of Ireland and visitors can view the Irish House of Lords chamber within the building. See also: List of Irish Representative Peers Category:History of Ireland Category:Historical upper houses

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (also known as the Viceroy or in the Middle Ages as the Lord Deputy) was the head of the Kingdom of England's (before the Act of Union 1707) or Kingdom of Great Britain's (after 1707) administration in Ireland. The office was originally the central focus of English/British administration in Ireland under the Lordship of Ireland (1171-1541), the Kingdom of Ireland (1541-1800) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801-1922). As the name suggests, the holder was in effect the King's representative; the word viceroy comes from the French vice roi or deputy king. Though earlier Lords Deputy had been Irish noblemen, from the Middle Ages, with the very odd exception, only English or British noblemen were appointed to the office.

Official Residence

1922 The official residence of the Lord Lieutenant was the Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle. However from the late 18th century, the Lord Lieutenant lived for much of the year in the Viceregal Lodge (now Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish presidential palace), a more private residence located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. In later years, Lords Lieutenant only lived in the Castle during the 'Social Season' (early January to St. Patrick's Day, March 17), during which time they held social events; balls, drawing rooms, etc. Other summer or alternative residences used by Lord Lieutenant or Lords Deputy included Abbeyville in Kinsealy (now the home of former taoiseach Charles Haughey) and a Chapelizod House, in which the Lord Lieutenant lived while Dublin Castle was being rebuilt following a fire but which he left due to the building being supposedly haunted. Lords Lieutenant and earlier Lords Deputy sometimes also owned property in Ireland, in which they lived rather than in state residences. The Geraldine Lords Deputy, Gearoid Mór Fitzgerald and Gearoid Óg Fitzgerald being native Irish both lived in, among other locations, their castle in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. The Earl of Essex owned Durhamstown Castle near Navan in County Meath, a short distance from the residence of the Lord Bishop of Meath at Ardbraccan.

Role in Government

Ardbraccan The Lord Lieutenant's government was not in any real way responsible to the Irish Parliament, prior to parliament's abolition thanks to the Act of Union 1800. Nevertheless, he did hold a formal State Opening of Parliament, delivering his speech outlining his government policy programme from the throne on the dais in the Irish House of Lords. By the mid 19th century, the Lord Lieutenant's role changed substantially. Though still the official representative of the sovereign, the day to day role of governing fell to the Chief Secretary for Ireland, who was in effect the prime minister of the British administration in Ireland. Many nineteenth century Lords Lieutenant were not even nominally members of the British Cabinet, while the supposedly more junior Chief Secretary usually was.

Irish Attitudes towards the Lord Lieutenant

Chief Secretary for Ireland The office of Lord Lieutenant, like the English and British government in Ireland was generally unpopular with Irish nationalists, though it was supported with varying degrees of enthusiasm by the Irish unionist community. Some Lords Lieutenants did earn a measure of popularity in a personal capacity among nationalists. From the early nineteenth century, calls were made frequently for the abolition of the office and its replacement by a Secretary of State for Ireland. Though on one occasion, a Bill was even introduced by one government to make this change, the office survived right down until the end of British rule in Ireland. unionist Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.]] Irish nationalists throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries campaigned for a form of Irish self-government. Daniel O'Connell sought Repeal of the Act of Union, with the re-establishment of a Kingdom of Ireland, while later nationalists like Charles Stewart Parnell sought a more moderate form of home rule within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Both made clear however, that the office of Lord Lieutenant could not survive in a restructured system of Irish government. The last of the four Home Rule bills, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, did provide for the continuation of the office. The Act divided Ireland into two devolved entities inside the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. Two institutions were meant to join the two; a Council of Ireland (which was hoped would evolve into a working all-Ireland parliament) and the Lord Lieutenant who would be the nominal chief executive of both regimes, appointing both prime ministers and dissolving both parliaments. In fact only Northern Ireland functioned, with Southern Ireland being replaced by the Irish Free State. The powers meant to have been possessed by the Lord Lieutenant were delegated by amendment to a new Governor of Northern Ireland, while the role of representative of the Crown in the Free State went to a new southern Governor-General. The Lord Lieutenantship as a result was abolished. By tradition the coat of arms of each Lord Lieutenant was displayed somewhere in the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle; some were incorporated into stained glass windows, some carved into seating, etc. Dubliners noted that the last available space was taken by the last Lord Lieutenant, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent. Fitzalan was the first Roman Catholic appointed as a representative of the Crown since the Glorious Revolution that brought William and Mary to power in 1688.

1801

.]] 1801 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 1 - Legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- January 1 - Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the first (and largest) asteroid Ceres.
- January 20 - John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.
- February 3 - William Pitt the Younger resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- February 9 - The Treaty of Lunéville ends the war (Second Coalition) between France and Austria.
- February 17 - An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
- February 27 - Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
- March 4 - Thomas Jefferson succeeds John Adams as the President of the United States of America.
- March 21 - Second Battle of Abukir: a British army under Ralph Abercromby defeats the French troops.
- March 23 - The Russian Tsar Paul I is murdered. He is succeeded by his son Alexander I of Russia.
- April 2 - First Battle of Copenhagen - The British fleet under Admiral Hyde Parker, along with Admiral Horatio Nelson, attack Copenhagen. Armed Neutrality of the North dissolved.
- May - The pascha of Tripoli declares war on United States by having the flagpole on the consulate chopped down.
- June 27 - Cairo falls to British troops.
- July 6 - Battle of Algeciras: The French fleet beats the British fleet.
- July 18 - Napoleon signs the Concordat of 1801 with the pope.
- November 16 - First edition of New York Evening Post
- Aachen is officially annexed by France.
- A census in London revealed it to have 860,035 residents
- First census in France
- Joseph-Marie Jacquard developed a loom where the pattern being woven was controlled by punch cards.
- The ultraviolet radiation is discovered by Johann Wilhelm Ritter

Ongoing events

- French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802)-Second Coalition/Egyptian Campaign
- Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)-Second Coalition/Egyptian Campaign

Births

- January 3 - Gijsbert Haan, Dutch-American religious leader (d. 1874)
- February 1 - Thomas Cole, American artist (d. 1848)
- February 21 - John Henry Newman, English Roman Catholic Cardinal (d. 1890)
- May 11 - Henri Labrouste, French architect (d. 1875)
- June 1 - Brigham Young, American religious leader and colonizer (d. 1877)
- June 4 - James Pennethorne, English architect (d. 1871)
- June 14 - Heber C. Kimball, American religious leader (d. 1868)
- June 30 - Frederic Bastiat, French philosopher (d. 1850)
- July 5 - David Farragut, American naval commander (d.1870)
- July 29 - George Bradshaw, English publisher (d. 1853)
- October 12 - Friedrich Frey-Herosé, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1873)
- November 3 - Karl Baedeker, German author and publisher (d. 1859)
- November 3 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (d. 1835)
- November 10 - Vladimir Dal, Russian lexicographer (d. 1872)
- December 11 - Christian Dietrich Grabbe, German writer (d. 1836)

Deaths

- February 7 - Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (b. 1726)
- March 21 - Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (b. 1741)
- March 23 - Tsar Paul of Russia (b. 1754)
- March 25 - Novalis, German poet (b. 1772)
- March 28 - Ralph Abercromby, British general (b. 1734)
- April 2 - Thomas Dadford Junior, British engineer
- April 7 - Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer (b. 1724)
- May 17 - William Heberden, English physician (b. 1710)
- June 4 - Frederick Muhlenberg, first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (b. 1750)
- September 19 - Johann Gottfried Koehler, German astronomer (b. 1745)
- October 3 - Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur, Marshal of France (b. 1724)
- November 4 - William Shippen, American physician and Continental Congressman (b. 1712)
- November 24 - Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, Austrian field marshal (b. 1725) Category:1801 ko:1801년 ms:1801 simple:1801

Henry Grattan

Henry Grattan (July 3, 1746 - June 6, 1820) was a member of the Irish House of Commons and a campaigner for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century. He opposed the Act of Union 1800 that merged the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain. Great Britain In his youth, he displayed an exceptional intellect and character. At Trinity College, Dublin, where he had a distinguished career, he began his lifelong study of classical literature and especially to the great orators of antiquity. He was called to the Irish bar in 1772, but never seriously practised the law. Like Henry Flood, with whom he was friendly, he cultivated his natural eloquence by studying models such as Bolingbroke and Junius. A visit to the English House of Lords excited boundless admiration for Chatham, of whose style of oratory Grattan contributed an interesting description to Baratariana. The influence of Flood helped give direction to Grattan's political aims. When Lord Charlemont brought him into the Irish parliament in 1775, in the very session in which Flood damaged his popularity by accepting office, Grattan quickly superseded his friend in the leadership of the national party. Grattan's oratorical powers were unsurpassed among his contemporaries. He conspicuously lacked the gracefulness he so much admired in Chatham, the sustained dignity of Pitt, and the reasoning powers of Charles James Fox and Flood himself. Nevertheless, his speeches were packed with epigram; his terse and telling sentences were richer in profound aphorisms and maxims on political philosophy than those of any other statesman save Burke; he possessed the orator's gift of conveying his own enthusiasm to his audience and convincing them of his sincerity. The principal object of the national party was to set the Irish parliament free from constitutional bondage to the English privy council. By virtue of Poyning's Law, a celebrated statute of King Henry VII of England, all proposed Irish legislation had to be submitted to the privy council for its approval under the great seal of England before being passed by the Irish parliament. A bill so approved might be accepted or rejected, but not amended. More recent English acts had further emphasized the complete dependence of the Irish parliament, and the appellate jurisdiction of the Irish House of Lords had also been annulled. Moreover, the English Houses claimed and exercised the power to legislate directly for Ireland without even the nominal concurrence of the parliament in Dublin. This was the constitution which Molyneux and Swift had denounced, which Flood had attacked, and which Grattan was to destroy. The menacing attitude of the Volunteer Convention at Dungannon greatly influenced the decision of the government in 1782 to resist the agitation no longer. It was through ranks of volunteers drawn up outside the parliament house in Dublin that Grattan passed on April 16, 1782, amidst unparalleled popular enthusiasm, to move a declaration of the independence of the Irish parliament. "I found Ireland on her knees," Grattan exclaimed, "I watched over her with a paternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms, and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift, spirit of Molyneux, your genius has prevailed! Ireland is now a nation!" After a month of negotiation the claims of Ireland were conceded. The gratitude of his countrymen to Grattan was shown by a parliamentary grant of £100,000, which had to be reduced by half before he would accept it. One of the first acts of Grattan's parliament was to prove its loyalty to England by passing a vote for the support of 20,000 sailors for the navy. Grattan was loyal to the crown and the English connection. He was, however, anxious for moderate parliamentary reform, and, unlike Flood, he favored Catholic emancipation. It was evident that without reform the Irish House of Commons would not be able to make much use of its newly-won independence. Though now free from constitutional control, it was still subject to the influence of corruption, which the English government had wielded through the Irish borough owners, known as the "undertakers", or more directly through the great executive officers. Grattan's parliament had no control over the Irish executive. The lord lieutenant and his chief secretary continued to be appointed by the English ministers; their tenure of office depended on the vicissitudes of English, not Irish, party politics; the royal prerogative was exercised in Ireland on the advice of English ministers. The House of Commons was unrepresentative of the Irish people. The great majority were excluded as Roman Catholics from the franchise; two-thirds of the members of the House of Commons were returned by small boroughs at the disposal of individual patrons, whose support was bought by the distribution of peerages and pensions. It was to give stability and true independence to the new constitution that Grattan pressed for reform. Having quarrelled with Flood over simple repeal, Grattan also differed from him on the question of maintaining the Volunteer Convention. He opposed the policy of protective duties, but supported Pitt's famous commercial propositions in 1785 for establishing free trade between Great Britain and Ireland, which, however, had to be abandoned owing to the hostility of the English mercantile classes. Grattan supported the government for a time after 1782, and spoke and voted for the stringent coercive legislation rendered necessary by the Whitebol outrages in 1785; but as the years passed without Pitt's personal favour towards parliamentary reform resulting in legislation, he gravitated towards the opposition, agitated for commutation of tithes in Ireland, and supported the Whigs on the regency question in 1788. In 1792 he succeeded in carrying an Act conferring the franchise on the Roman Catholics; in 1794 in conjunction with William Ponsonby he introduced a reform bill which was even less democratic than Flood's bill of 1783. He was as anxious as Flood had been to retain the legislative power in the hands of men of property, for he had through the whole of his life a strong conviction that while Ireland could best be governed by Irish hands, democracy in Ireland would inevitably turn to plunder and anarchy. i At the same time he desired to admit the Roman Catholic gentry of property to membership of the House of Commons, a proposal that was the logical corollary of the Relief Act of 1792. The defeat of Grattan's mild proposals helped to promote more extreme opinions, which, under French revolutionary influence, were now becoming heard in Ireland. The Catholic question had rapidly become of the first importance, and when a powerful section of the Whigs joined Pitt's ministry in 1794, and it became known that the lord-lieutenancy was to go to Lord Fitzwilliam, who shared Grattan's views, expectations were raised that the question was about to be settled in a manner satisfactory to the Irish Catholics. Such seems to have been Pitt's intention, though there has been much controversy as to how far Lord Fitzwilliam had been authorized to pledge the government. After taking. Grattan into his confidence, it was arranged that the latter should bring in a Roman Catholic emancipation bill, and that it should then receive government support. But finally it appeared that the viceroy had either misunderstood or exceeded his instructions; and on February 19, 1795 Fitzwilliam was recalled. In the outburst of indignation, followed by increasing disaffection in Ireland, which this event produced, Grattan acted with conspicuous moderation. and loyalty, which won for him warm acknowledgments from a member of the English cabinet. That cabinet, however, doubtless influenced by the wishes of the king, was now determined firmly to resist the Catholic demands, with the result that the country rapidly drifted towards rebellion. Grattan warned the government in a series of masterly speeches of the lawless condition to which Ireland had been driven. He could now count on no more than forty followers in the House of Commons, and his words were unheeded. He retired from parliament in May 1797, and departed from his customary moderation by attacking the government in an inflammatory Letter to the citizens of Dublin. At this time religious animosity had almost died out in Ireland, and men of different faiths were ready to combine for common political objects. Thus the Presbyterians of the north, who were mainly republican in sentiment, combined with a section of the Roman Catholics to form the organization of the United Irishmen, to promote revolutionary ideas imported from France; and a party prepared to welcome a French invasion soon came into existence. Thus stimulated, the increasing disaffection culminated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which was cruelly repressed. Almost immediately, the project of a legislative union between the British and Irish parliaments, which had been from time to time discussed since the beginning of the 18th century, was taken up in earnest by Pitt's government. Grattan denounced the scheme with implacable hostility. The constitution of Grattan's parliament offered no security, as the differences over the regency question had mad evident that in matters of imperial interest the policy of the Irish parliament and that of Great Britain would be in agreement and at a moment when England was engaged in a life and death struggle with France it was impossible for the ministry to ignore the danger, recently emphasized by the fact that the independent constitution of 1782 offered no safeguard against armed revolt. The rebellion put an end to the growing reconciliation between Roman Catholics and Protestants religious passions were now violently inflamed, and the Orange men and Catholics divided the island into two hostile factions It is a curious circumstance, in view of the subsequent history of Irish politics, that it was from the Protestant Established Church, and particularly from the Orangemen, that the bitterest opposition to the union proceeded; and that the proposal found support chiefly among the Roman Catholic clergy and especially the bishops, while in no part of Ireland was it received with more favor than in the city of Cork. This attitude of the Catholics was caused by Pitt's encouragement of the expectation that Catholic emancipation, the commutation of tithes, and the endowment of the Catholic priesthood, would accompany or quickly follow the passing of the measure. When in 1799 the government brought forward their bill it was defeated in the Irish House of Commons. Grattan was still in retirement. His popularity had declined, and the fact that his proposals for parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation had become the watchwords of the rebellious United Irishmen had brought him the bitter hostility of the governing classes. He was dismissed from the privy council; his portrait was removed from the hall of Trinity College; the Merchant Guild of Dublin struck his name off their rolls. The threatened destruction of the constitution of 1782 quickly restored its author to his former place in the affections of the Irish people. The parliamentary recess had been employed by the government in securing by lavish corruption a majority in favour of their policy. On January 15, 1800 the Irish parliament met for its last session; on the same day Grattan secured by purchase a seat for Wicklow; and at a late hour, while the debate was proceeding, he appeared to take his seat, and was cheered from the galleries. Grattan's strength gave way when he rose to speak, and he obtained leave to address the House sitting. Nevertheless his speech was a superb effort of oratory; for more than two hours he kept them spellbound. After prolonged debates Grattan, on 26 May, spoke finally against the committal of the bill, ending with an impassioned peroration in which he declared, "I will remain anchored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her freedom, faithful to her fall." These were the last words spoken by Grattan in the Irish parliament. The bill establishing the union was carried through its final stages by substantial majorities. One of Grattan's main grounds of opposition to the union had been his dread of seeing the political leadership in Ireland pass out of the hands of the landed gentry; and he prophesied that the time would come when Ireland would send to the united parliament a hundred of the greatest rascals in the kingdom. Like Flood before him, Grattan had no leaning towards democracy; and he anticipated that by the removal of the centre of political interest from Ireland the evil of absenteeism would be intensified. For the next five years Grattan took no active part in public affairs; it was not till 1805 that he became a member of the parliament of the United Kingdom. He modestly took his seat on one of the back benches, till Fox brought him forward, exclaiming, "This is no place for the Irish Demosthenes!" His first speech was on the Catholic question and all agreed with the description of his speech by the Annual Register as one of the most brilliant and eloquent ever made within the walls of parliament. When Fox and William Grenville came into power in 1806 Grattan was offered, but refused to accept, an office in the government. In the following year he showed the strength of his judgment and character by supporting, in spite of consequent unpopularity in Ireland, a measure for increasing the powers of the executive to deal with Irish disorder. Roman Catholic emancipation, which he continued to advocate with unflagging energy though now advanced in age, became complicated after 1808 by the question whether a veto on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops should rest with the crown. Grattan supported the veto, but a more extreme Catholic party was now arising in Ireland under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell, and Grattan's influence gradually declined. He seldom spoke in parliament after 1810, the most notable exception being in 1815, when he separated himself from the Whigs and supported the final struggle against Napoleon. His last speech of all, in 1819, contained a passage referring to the union he had so passionately resisted, which exhibits the statesmanship and at the same time the equable quality of Grattan's character. His sentiments with regard to the policy of the union remained, he said, unchanged; but the marriage having taken place it is now the duty, as it ought to be the inclination, of every individual to render it as fruitful, as profitable and as advantageous as possible. In the following summer, after crossing from Ireland to London when out of health to bring forward the Catholic question once more, he became seriously ill. On his death-bed he spoke generously of Castlereagh, and with warm eulogy of his former rival, Flood. He died on the 6th of June 1820, and was buried in Westminster Abbey close to the tombs of Pitt and Fox. His statue is in the outer lobby of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Grattan had married in 1782 Henrietta Fitzgerald, a lady descended from the ancient family of Desmond, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. The most searching scrutiny of his private life only increases the respect due to the memory of Grattan as a statesman and the greatest of Irish orators. His patriotism was untainted by self-seeking; he was courageous in risking his popularity for what his sound judgment showed him to be the right course. As Sydney Smith said with truth of Grattan soon after his death: "No government ever dismayed him. The world could not bribe him. He thought only of Ireland; lived for no other object; dedicated to her his beautiful fancy, his elegant wit, his manly courage, and all the splendour of his astonishing eloquence."

Bibliography

Henry Grattan, Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Right Hon. H. Grattan (5 vols., London, 1839-1846); Grattan's Speeches (ed by H. Grattan, junr., 1822); Irish Part. Debates; WEH Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth century (8 vols., London, 1878-1890) and Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (enlarged edition, 2 vols., 1903). For the controversy concerning the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam see, in addition to the foregoing, Lord Rosebery, Pitt (London, 1891); Lord Ashbourne, Pitt: Some Chapters of his Life (London, 1898); The Pelham Papers (Brit. Mus. Add. Manuscripts 33118); Carlisle Correspondence; Beresford Correspondence; Stanhope Miscellanies; for the Catholic question, W Anshurst, History of Catholic Emancipation (2 vols., London, 1886); Sir Thomas Wyse, Historical Sketch of the late Catholic Association of Ireland (London, 1829); WJ MacNeven, Pieces of Irish History (New York, 1807) containing an account of the United Irishmen; for the volunteer movement Thomas MacNevin, History of the Volunteers of 1782 (Dublin, 1845); Proceedings of the Volunteer Delegates of Ireland 1784 (Anon. Pamph. Brit. Mus.). See also F Hardy, Memoirs of Lord Charlemont (London, 1812); Warden Flood, Memoirs of Henry Flood (London, 1838); Francis Plowden, Historical Review of the State of Ireland (London, 1803); Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (Dublin, 1878); Sir Jonah Barrington, Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation (London, 1833); WJ O'Neill Daunt, Ireland and her Agitators; Lord Mountmorres, History of the Irish Parliament (2 vole., London, 1792); Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III (4 vols., London, 1845 and 1894); Lord Stanhope, Life of William Pitt (4 vols., London, 1861); Thomas Davis, Life of JP Curran (Dublin, 1846) this contains a memoir of Grattan by DO Madden, and Grattan's reply to Lord Clare on the question of the Union; Charles Phillips, Recollections of Curran and some of his Contemporaries (London, 1822); JA Froude, The English in Ireland (London, 1881); JG McCarthy, Henry Grattan: an Historical Study (London, 1886); Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. vii. (1858). With special reference to the Union see Castlereagh Correspondence; Cornwallis Correspondence; Westmorland Papers (Irish State Paper Office).

Reference

Grattan, Henry Grattan, Henry Grattan, Henry Grattan, Henry

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and is now the dominant branch of Parliament. Parliament also includes the Sovereign and the upper house, the House of Lords. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members of Parliament" or "MPs." Members are elected by the first past the post system of election for limited terms, holding office until Parliament is dissolved (a maximum of five years). Each member is elected by, and represents, an electoral district known as a constituency. The House of Commons is the source of the vast majority of government ministers and, since 1963, every Prime Minister. The House of Commons evolved at some point during the fourteenth century and has been in continuous existence since. The House of Commons (the "Lower House") was once far less powerful than the House of Lords (the "Upper House"), but is now by far the dominant branch of Parliament. The House of Commons' legislative powers exceed those of the House of Lords; under the Parliament Act 1911, the Upper House's power to reject most bills has been reduced to a mere delaying power. Moreover, the Government of the United Kingdom is answerable to the House of Commons; the Prime Minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of the Lower House. The full, formal style of the House of Commons is The Honourable The Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament Assembled. The term "Commons" derives from the Norman French word communes, meaning "localities." It is often misunderstood that "Commons" is a shortening of the word "commoners" (as opposed to "Lords" in the case of the other House) but this explanation is ahistorical. The House of Commons, like the House of Lords, meets in the Palace of Westminster.

History

Parliament developed from the council that advised the King during mediæval times. This royal council, meeting for short-term periods, included ecclesiastics, noblemen, as well as representatives of the counties (known as "knights of the shire"). The chief duty of the council was to approve taxes proposed by the Crown. In many cases, however, the council demanded the redress of the people's grievances before proceeding to vote on taxation. Thus, it developed legislative powers. In the "Model Parliament" of 1295, representatives of the boroughs (including towns and cities) were also admitted. Thus, it became settled practice that each county send two knights of the shire, and that each borough send two burgesses. At first, the representatives of the boroughs were almost entirely powerless; whilst county representation was fixed, the monarch could enfranchise or disfranchise boroughs at pleasure. Any show of independence by burgesses would have led to the exclusion of their towns from Parliament. The knights of the shire were in a better position, though still less powerful than their aristocratic counterparts in the still unicameral Parliament. The division of Parliament into two houses occurred during the reign of Edward III: the knights and burgesses formed the House of Commons, whilst the clergy and nobility formed the House of Lords. Though they remained subordinate to both the Crown and the Lords, the Commons did act with increasing boldness. During the Good Parliament (1376), the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Peter de la Mare, complained of heavy taxes, demanded an accounting of the royal expenditures, and criticised the King's management of the military. The Commons even proceeded to impeach some of the King's ministers. The bold Speaker was imprisoned, but was soon released after the death of King Edward III. During the reign of the next monarch, Richard II, the Commons once again began to impeach errant ministers of the Crown. They insisted that they could not only control taxation, but also public expenditures. Despite such gains in authority, however, the Commons still remained much less powerful than the House of Lords and the Crown. The influence of the Crown was further increased by the civil wars of the late fifteenth century, which destroyed the power of the great nobles. Both houses of Parliament held little power during the ensuing years, and the absolute supremacy of the Sovereign was restored. The domination of the Crown grew even further during the reigns of the monarchs of the Tudor dynasty in the sixteenth century. This trend, however, was somewhat reversed when the House of Stuart came to the English Throne in 1603. The first two Stuart monarchs, James I and Charles I, provoked conflicts with the Commons over issues such as taxation, religion, and royal powers. The bitter differences between Charles I and Parliament were great, and were settled only by the English Civil War. The King was beheaded, and the monarchy and Upper House abolished, in 1649. Although the Commons were in theory supreme, the nation was truly under the control of a military dictator, Oliver Cromwell. The monarchy and the House of Lords were, however, both restored in 1660, soon after Cromwell's death. The influence of the Crown had been lessened, and was further diminished when James II was deposed in the course of the Glorious Revolution (1688). The House of Lords, however, soon returned to its dominant position in Parliament, and would continue to occupy such a position until the nineteenth century. The eighteenth century was notable in that it was marked by the development of the office of Prime Minister. The modern notion that the Government may remain in power only as long as it retains the support of Parliament soon became established. The modern notion that only the support of the House of Commons is necessary, however, was of much later development. Similarly, the custom that the Prime Minister is always a Member of the Lower House, rather than the Upper one, did not evolve immediately. The House of Commons experienced an important period of reform during the nineteenth century. The Crown had made use of its prerogative of enfranchising and disenfranchising boroughs very irregularly, and several anomalies had developed in borough representation. Many towns that were once important but had become inconsiderable by the nineteenth century retained their ancient right of electing two Members each. The most notorious of these "rotten boroughs" was Old Sarum, which had only eleven voters; at the same time, large cities such as Manchester received no separate representation, although their eligible residents were able to vote in the corresponding county seat - in the case of Manchester, Lancashire. Also notable were the pocket boroughs—small constituencies controlled by wealthy landowners and aristocrats, whose "nominees" were invariably elected by the voters.

The Reform Acts and Parliament Acts

The Commons attempted to address these anomalies by passing a Reform Bill in 1831. At first, the House of Lords proved unwilling to pass the bill, but were forced to relent when the Prime Minister, Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, advised King William IV to flood the House of Lords with several pro-Reform Members. Before the King could take such an action, the Lords passed the bill in 1832. The "Reform Act 1832" abolished the rotten boroughs, established uniform voting requirements for the boroughs, and granted representation to populous cities, but also retained many pocket boroughs. In the ensuing years, the Commons grew more assertive, the influence of the House of Lords having been damaged by the Reform Bill Crisis, and the power of the patrons of pocket boroughs having been diminished. The Lords became more reluctant to reject bills that the Commons passed with large majorities, and it became an accepted political principle that the support of the House of Commons alone was necessary for a Prime Minister to remain in office. Many further reforms were introduced during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Reform Act 1867 lowered property requirements for voting in the boroughs, reduced the representation of the less populous boroughs, and granted parliamentary seats to several growing industrial towns. The electorate was further expanded by the Representation of the People Act 1884, under which property qualifications in the counties were lowered. The Redistribution of Seats Act of the following year replaced almost all multi-member constituencies with single-member constituencies. Redistribution of Seats Act The next important phase in the history of the House of Commons came during the early twentieth century. In 1908, the Liberal Government under Herbert Henry Asquith introduced a number of social welfare programmes, which, together with an expensive arms race with Germany, had forced the Government to seek more funding in the form of tax increases. In 1909, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, introduced the "People's Budget", which proposed a new tax targeting wealthy landowners. The unpopular measure, however, failed in the heavily Conservative House of Lords. Having made the powers of the House of Lords a primary campaign issue, the Liberals were re-elected in January 1910. Asquith then proposed that the powers of the House of Lords be severely curtailed. Proceedings on the bill were briefly interrupted by the death of King Edward VII, but were soon recommenced under the new monarch, George V. After fresh elections in December 1910, the Asquith Government secured the passage of a bill to curtail the powers of the House of Lords. The Prime Minister proposed, and the King agreed, that the House of Lords could be flooded by the creation of five hundred new Liberal peers if it failed to pass the bill. (This was the same device used earlier to force the Upper House to consent to the passage of the Reform Act 1832.) The Parliament Act 1911 soon came into effect, destroying the legislative equality of the two Houses of Parliament. The House of Lords was only permitted to delay most legislation for a maximum of three parliamentary sessions or two calendar years—reduced to two sessions or one year by the Parliament Act 1949. Since the passage of these Acts, the House of Commons has remained the dominant branch of Parliament, both in theory and in practice. Historically MPs were unpaid. Most of the men elected to the Commons had private incomes, while a few relied on financial support from a wealthy patron. Early Labour MPs were often provided with a salary by a trade union, but this was declared illegal by a House of Lords judgement of 1910. Consequently a clause was included in the Parliament Act 1911 introducing salaries for MPs. It should be noted that government ministers had always been paid.

Members and elections

Parliament Act 1949 Each Member of Parliament represents a single constituency. Prior to the reforms of the nineteenth century, the constituencies had little basis in population: the counties and the boroughs (whose boundaries were fixed) were, for the most part, equally represented in the Lower House by two Members each. Reforms enacted during the nineteenth century, starting with the Reform Act 1832, led to a more equitable distribution of seats. Moreover, the reforms of 1885 abolished most two-member constituencies; the few that remained were all abolished in 1948. University constituencies (the constituencies that allowed important universities such as Oxford and Cambridge to be represented in Parliament) were abolished in the same year. Thus, each constituency now elects only one Member of Parliament. There is still a technical distinction between county constituencies and borough constituencies, but the only effect of this difference involves the amount of money candidates are allowed to spend during campaigns. The boundaries of the constituencies are determined by four permanent and independent Boundary Commissions, one each for England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The number of constituencies assigned to the four parts of the United Kingdom is based roughly on population, but subject to certain statutory regulations. England, Wales, and Scotland must have a total of approximately 613 constituencies, and Northern Ireland must include between sixteen and eighteen constituencies. By law Wales must have at least 35 Members of Parliament. The Commissions conduct general reviews of electoral boundaries once every eight to twelve years, as well as a number of interim reviews. In drawing boundaries, they are required to take into account local government boundaries, but may deviate from this requirement in order to prevent great disparities in the populations of the various constituencies. The proposals of the Boundary Commissions are subject to parliamentary approval, but may not be amended by Parliament. After the next general review of constituencies, the Boundary Commissions will be absorbed into the Electoral Commission, which was established in 2000.Currently the United Kingdom is divided into 646 constituencies, with 529 in England, 40 in Wales, 59 in Scotland, and 18 in Northern Ireland. General elections occur whenever Parliament is dissolved by the Sovereign. The timing of the dissolution is normally chosen by the Prime Minister (see relationship with the Government below); however, a parliamentary term may not last for more than five years, unless a Bill extending the life of Parliament passes both Houses and receives Royal Assent. The House of Lords, exceptionally, retains its power of veto over such a Bill. Each candidate must submit nomination papers signed by ten registered voters from the constituency, and pay a deposit of £500, which is refunded only if the candidate wins at least five per cent of the vote. The deposit seeks to discourage frivolous candidates. Each constituency returns one Member; the First-Past-the-Post electoral system, under which the candidate with a plurality of votes wins, is used. Minors, members of the House of Lords, prisoners, and insane persons are not qualified to become Members. In order to vote, one must be a resident of the United Kingdom as well as a citizen of the United Kingdom, of a British overseas territory, of the Republic of Ireland, or of a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Also, British citizens living abroad are allowed to vote for fifteen years after moving from the United Kingdom. No voter may vote in more than one constituency. Once elected, the Member of Parliament normally continues to serve until the next dissolution of Parliament or until death. If a Member, however, ceases to be qualified (see qualifications below), his or her seat falls vacant. It is possible for the House of Commons to expel a Member, but this power is only exercised when the Member has engaged in serious misconduct or criminal activity. In each case, a vacancy may be filled by a by-election in the appropriate constituency. The same electoral system is used as in general elections. The term "Member of Parliament" is normally used only to refer to Members of the House of Commons, even though the House of Lords is also a part of Parliament. Members of the House of Commons may use the post-nominal letters "MP." The annual salary of each Member is £57,485; Members may receive additional salaries in right of other offices they hold (for instance, the Speakership). Most Members also claim between £100,000 and £150,000 for various office expenses (staff costs, postage, travelling, etc) and also for the costs of maintaining a home in London in the case of non-London Members.

Qualifications

There are numerous qualifications that apply to Members of Parliament. Most importantly, one must be aged at least twenty-one years, and must be a citizen of the United Kingdom, of a British overseas territory, of the Republic of Ireland, or of a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, in order to be eligible. These restrictions were introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981, but were previously far more stringent: under the Act of Settlement 1701, only natural-born subjects were qualified. Members of the House of Lords may not serve in the House of Commons. A person may not sit in the House of Commons if he or she is the subject of a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order (applicable in England and Wales only), or if he or she is adjudged bankrupt (in Northern Ireland), or if his or her estate is sequestered (in Scotland). Also, lunatics are ineligible to sit in the House of Commons. Under the Mental Health Act 1959, two specialists must report to the Speaker that a Member is suffering from mental illness before a seat can be declared vacant. There also exists a common law precedent from the eighteenth century that the "deaf and dumb" are ineligible to sit in the Lower House. This precedent, however, has not been tested in recent years, and is highly unlikely to be upheld by the courts. Anyone found guilty of high treason may not sit in Parliament until he or she has either completed the term of imprisonment, or received a full pardon from the Crown. Moreover, anyone serving a prison sentence of one year or more is ineligible. Finally, the Representation of the People Act 1983 disqualifies those found guilty of certain election-related offences for ten years. Several other disqualifications are established by the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975. Holders of high judicial offices, civil servants, members of the regular armed forces, members of foreign legislatures (excluding members of the legislatures of the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth countries), and holders of several Crown offices listed in the Act are all disqualified. The provisions of the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 largely consolidate the clauses of several previous enactments; in particular, several Crown officers had already been disqualified since the passage of the Act of Settlement 1707. Ministers, even though they are paid officers of the Crown, are not disqualified. The rule that precludes certain Crown officers from serving in the House of Commons is used to circumvent a resolution adopted by the House of Commons in 1623, under which Members are not permitted to resign their seats. Should a Member seek to leave, he or she may request appointment to one of two ceremonial Crown offices: that of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, or that of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. These offices are sinecures (that is, they involve no actual duties); they exist solely in order to permit the "resignation" of Members of the House of Commons. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is responsible for making the appointment, and, by convention, never refuses to do so when asked by a Member who desires to leave the House of Commons. See resignation from the British House of Commons.

Officers

resignation from the British House of Commons The House of Commons elects a presiding officer, known as the Speaker, at the beginning of each new parliamentary term, and also whenever a vacancy arises. If the incumbent Speaker seeks a new term, the House may re-elect him or her merely by passing a motion; otherwise, a secret ballot is held. A Speaker-elect cannot take office until he or she has been approved by the Sovereign; the granting of the royal approbation, however, is a mere formality. The Speaker is assisted by three Deputy Speakers, the most senior of which holds the title of Chairman of Ways and Means. The two other Deputy Speakers are known as the First and Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means. These titles derive from the Committee of Ways and Means, a body over which the Chairman once used to preside; even though the Committee was abolished in 1967, the traditional titles of the Deputy Speakers are still retained. The Speaker and the Deputy Speakers are always Members of the House of Commons. Whilst presiding, the Speaker or Deputy Speaker wears a ceremonial black robe. The presiding officer may also wear a wig, but this tradition has been abandoned by the present Speaker, Michael Martin, and by his predecessor, Betty Boothroyd. The Speaker or Deputy Speaker presides from a chair at the front of the House. The Speaker is Chairman of the House of Commons Commisssion, which oversees the running of the House, and controls debates by calling on Members to speak. If a Member believes that a rule (or Standing Order) has been breached, he or she may raise a "point of order," on which the Speaker makes a ruling that is not subject to any appeal. The Speaker may discipline Members who fail to observe the rules of the House. Thus, the Speaker is far more powerful than his Lords counterpart, the Lord Chancellor, who has no disciplinary powers at all. Customarily, the Speaker and the Deputy Speakers are non-partisan; they do not vote, or participate in the affairs of any political party. By convention, a Speaker seeking re-election is not opposed in his or her constituency by any of the major parties. The lack of partisanship continues even after the Speaker leaves the House of Commons. The Clerk of the House is both the House's chief adviser on matters of procedure and Chief Executive of the House of Commons. He is a permanent official, not a Member of the House itself. The Clerk advises the Speaker on the rules and procedure of the House, signs orders and official communications, and signs and endorses bills. He chairs the Board of Management, which consists of the heads of the six departments of the House. The Clerk's deputy is known as the Clerk Assistant. Another officer of the House is the Serjeant-at-Arms, whose duties include the maintenance of law, order, and security on the House's premises. The Serjeant-at-Arms carries the ceremonial Mace, a symbol of the authority of the Crown and of the House of Commons, into the House each day in front of the Speaker. The Mace is laid upon the Table of the House of Commons during sittings.

Procedure

Mace Like the House of Lords, the House of Commons meets in the Palace of Westminster in London. The Commons Chamber is small and modestly decorated in green, in contrast with the large, lavishly furnished red Lords Chamber. There are benches on two sides of the Chamber, divided by a centre aisle. This arrangement reflects the design of St Stephen's Chapel, which served as the home of the House of Commons until destroyed by fire in 1834. The Speaker's chair is at one end of the Chamber; in front of it is the Table of the House, on which the Mace rests. The Clerks sit at one end of the Table, close to the Speaker so that they may advise him or her on procedure when necessary. Members of the Government sit on the benches on the Speaker's right, whilst members of the Opposition occupy the benches on the Speaker's left. In front of each set of benches, a red line is drawn on the carpet. The red lines in front of the two sets of benches are two-sword lengths apart; a Member is traditionally not allowed to cross the line during debates, for he or she is then supposed to be able to attack an individual on the opposite side. Government ministers and important Opposition leaders sit on the front rows, and are known as "frontbenchers." Other Members of Parliament, in contrast, are known as "backbenchers." Oddly, all Members of Parliament cannot fit in the Chamber, which can only seat 427 of the 646 Members. Members who arrive late must stand near the entrance of the House if they wish to listen to debates. Sittings in the Chamber are held each day from Monday to Thursday, and also on some Fridays. During times of national emergency, the House may also sit on Saturdays. Due to recent reforms, the House of Commons sometimes meets in another chamber in the Palace of Westminster, known as Westminster Hall. Debates in Westminster Hall are generally uncontroversial or non-partisan; business which leads to actual votes must still be conducted in the main Chamber. Westminster Hall sittings take place each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. A morning session and an evening sitting occurs on each of these days. Sittings of the House are open to the public, but the House may at any time vote to sit in private. Traditionally, a Member who desired that the House sit privately could shout "I spy strangers," and a vote would automatically follow. More often, however, this device was used to delay and disrupt debates; it was abolished in 1998. Now, Members seeking that the House sit in private must make a formal motion to that effect. Public debates are broadcast on the radio, and on television by BBC Parliament, and are recorded in Hansard. Sessions of the House of Commons have often been disrupted by angry protesters who hurl objects into the Chamber from the Strangers Gallery and other galleries. Items which have been thrown into the House include leaflets, manure, flour (see Fathers 4 Justice House of Commons protest), and a canister of chlorobenzylidene malonitrile. Even members have been known to disturb proceedings of the House; for instance, in 1976, Conservative MP Michael Heseltine seized and brandished the Mace of the House during a heated debate. Perhaps the most famous disruption of the House of Commons was caused by King Charles I, who entered the Commons Chamber in 1642 with an armed force in order to arrest five Members of Parliament who belonged to an anti-royalist faction. This action, however, was deemed a grave breach of the privilege of Parliament. By a custom which has been strictly maintained since 1642, no monarch has sought to set foot in the Commons Chamber. Another tradition that arose from Charles I's actions involves the State Opening of Parliament, an annual ceremony in the Lords Chamber during which the Sovereign, in the presence of Members of both Houses, delivers an address on the Government's legislative agenda. The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod (a Lords official) is responsible for summoning the Commons to the Lords Chamber; when he arrives to deliver his summons, the doors of the Commons Chamber are shut, symbolising the right of the Lower House to debate without interference. The Gentleman Usher knocks on the door thrice with his Black Rod, and only then is he granted admittance. During debates, Members may only speak if called upon by the Speaker (or the Deputy Speaker, if the Speaker is not presiding). Traditionally, the presiding officer alternates between calling Members from the Government and Opposition. The Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and other leaders from both sides are normally given priority when more than one Member rises to speak at the same time. Formerly, all Privy Counsellors were granted priority; however, the modernisation of Commons procedure led to the abolition of this tradition in 1998. Speeches are addressed to the presiding officer, using the words "Mr Speaker," "Madam Speaker," "Mr Deputy Speaker," or "Madam Deputy Speaker." Only the presiding officer may be directly addressed in speeches; other Members must be referred to in the third person. Traditionally, Members do not refer to each other by name, but by constituency, using forms such as "the Honourable Member for [constituency]," or, in the case of Privy Counsellors, "the Right Honourable Member for [constituency]." The Speaker enforces the rules of the House, and may warn and punish Members who deviate from them. Disregarding the Speaker's instructions is considered a severe breach of the rules of the House, and may result in the suspension of the offender from the House. In the case of grave disorder, the Speaker may adjourn the House without taking a vote. The Standing Orders of the House of Commons do not establish any formal time limits for debates. The Speaker may, however, order a Member who persists in making a tediously repetitive or irrelevant speech to stop speaking. The time set aside for debate on a particular motion is, however, often limited by informal agreements between the parties. Debate may, however, be restricted by the passage of "Allocation of Time Motions", which are more commonly known as "Guillotine Motions." Alternatively, the House may put an immediate end to debate by passing a motion to invoke the Closure. The Speaker is allowed to deny the motion if he or she believes that it infringes upon the rights of the minority. When the debate concludes, or when the Closure is invoked, the motion in question is put to a vote. The House first votes by voice vote; the Speaker or Deputy Speaker puts the question, and Members respond either "Aye" (in favour of the motion) or "No" (against the motion). The presiding officer then announces the result of the voice vote, but if his or her assessment is challenged by any Member, a recorded vote known as a division follows. (The presiding officer, if he or she believes that the result of the voice vote is so clear that a division is not necessary, may reject the challenge.) If a division does occur, Members enter one of two lobbies (the "Aye" lobby or the "No" lobby) on either side of the Chamber, where their names are recorded by clerks. At each lobby are two Tellers (themselves Members of the House) who count the votes of the Members. Once the division concludes, the Tellers provide the results to the presiding officer, who then announces them to the House. If there is an equality of votes, the Speaker or Deputy Speaker has a casting vote. The quorum of the House of Commons is forty members for any vote; if fewer than forty members have participated, the division is invalid. Formerly, if a Member sought to raise a point of order during a division, he was required to wear a hat, thereby signalling that he was not engaging in debate. Collapsible top hats were kept in the Chamber just for this purpose. This custom was discontinued in 1998. The outcome of most votes is largely known beforehand, since political parties normally instruct members on how to vote. A party normally entrusts some Members of Parliament, known as whips, with the task of ensuring that all party Members vote as desired. Members of Parliament do not tend to vote against such instructions, since those who do so are unlikely to reach higher political ranks in their parties. Errant Members may be deselected as official party candidates during future elections, and, in serious cases, may be expelled from their parties outright. Thus, the independence of Members of Parliament tends to be extremely low, and "backbench rebellions" by Members discontent with their party's policies are rare. In some circumstances, however, parties announce "free votes", allowing Members to vote as they please. Votes relating to issues of conscience such as abortion and capital punishment are typically free votes.

Committees

The Parliament of the United Kingdom uses committees for a variety of purposes; one common use is for the review of bills. Committees consider bills in detail, and may make amendments. Bills of great constitutional importance, as well as some important financial measures, are usually sent to the Committee of the Whole House, a body that, as its name suggests, includes all members of the House of Commons. Instead of the Speaker, the Chairman or a Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means presides. The Committee meets in the House of Commons Chamber. Most bills are considered by Standing Committees, which consist of between sixteen and fifty members each. The membership of each Standing Committee roughly reflects the standing of the parties in the whole House. Though "standing" may imply permanence, the membership of Standing Committees changes constantly; new Members are assigned each time the Committee considers a new bill. There is no formal limit on the number of Standing Committees, but there are usually only ten. Rarely, a bill may be committed to a Special Standing Committee, which operates much like a Standing Committee, but also investigates and holds hearings on the issues raised by the bill. The House of Commons also has several Departmental Select Committees. The membership of these bodies, like that of the Standing Committees, reflects the strength of the parties in the House of Commons. Each committee elects its own Chairman. The primary function of a Departmental Select Committee is to scrutinise and investigate the activities of a particular Government Department; to fulfil these aims, it is permitted to hold hearings and collect evidence. Bills may be referred to Departmental Select Committees, but such a procedure is very seldom used. A separate type of Select Committee is the Domestic Committee. Domestic Committees oversee the administration of the House and the services provided to Members. Other committees of the House of Commons include Joint Committees (which also include members of the House of Lords), the Committee on Standards and Privileges (which considers questions of parliamentary privilege, as well as matters relating to the conduct of the Members), and the Committee of Selection (which determines the membership of other committees).

Legislative functions

Although legislation may be introduced in either House, bills normally originate in the House of Commons. For the stages through which the legislation passes in the House of Commons, see Act of Parliament. The supremacy of the Commons in legislative matters is assured by the Parliament Acts, under which certain types of bills may be presented for the Royal Assent without the consent of the House of Lords. The Lords may not delay a money bill (a bill that, in the view of the Speaker of the House of Commons, solely concerns national taxation or public funds) for more than one month. Moreover, the Lords may not delay most other public bills for more than two parliamentary sessions, or one calendar year. These provisions, however, only apply to public bills that originate in the House of Commons. Moreover, a bill that seeks to extend a parliamentary term beyond five years requires the consent of the House of Lords. By a custom that prevailed even before the Parliament Acts, the superiority of the House of Commons is ensured insofar as financial matters are concerned. Only the House of Commons may originate bills concerning taxation or Supply; furthermore, Supply bills passed by the House of Commons are immune to amendments in the House of Lords. In addition, the House of Lords is barred from amending a bill so as to insert a taxation or Supply-related provision, but the House of Commons often waives its privileges and allows the Lords to make amendments with financial implications. Under a separate convention, known as the Salisbury Convention, the House of Lords does not seek to oppose legislation promised in the Government's election manifesto. Hence, as the power of the House of Lords has been severely curtailed by statute and by practice, the House of Commons is clearly the more powerful branch of Parliament.

Relationship with the Government

Though it does not elect the Prime Minister, the House of Commons indirectly controls the premiership. By convention, the Prime Minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Thus, whenever the office of Prime Minister falls vacant, the Sovereign appoints the person most likely to command the support of the House—normally, the leader of the largest party in the Lower House. (The leader of the second-largest party becomes the Leader of the Opposition.) In modern times, and practically by convention, the Prime Minister is always a member of the House of Commons, rather than the House of Lords. The Prime Minister may only stay in office as long as he or she retains the confidence of the House of Commons. The Lower House may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a Motion of Confidence, or by passing a Motion of No Confidence. Confidence and No Confidence Motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance: "That this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government." Many other motions are considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such. In particular, important bills that form a part of the Government's agenda are generally considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. When a Government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons, the Prime Minister is obliged to either resign, or request the monarch to dissolve Parliament, thereby precipitating a general election. Except when compelled to do so by an adverse vote on a confidence issue, the Prime Minister is allowed to choose the timing of dissolutions, and consequently the timing of general elections. The timing reflects political considerations, and is generally most opportune for the Prime Minister's party. However, no parliamentary term can last for more than five years; a dissolution is automatic upon the expiry of this period. Parliament is almost never permitted to sit for the maximum possible term, with dissolutions customarily being requested earlier. Whatever the reason—the expiry of Parliament's five year term, the choice of the Prime Minister, or a Government defeat in the House of Commons—a dissolution is followed by general elections. If the Prime Minister's party retains its majority in the House of Commons, then the Prime Minister may remain in power. On the other hand, if his or her party has lost its majority, the Prime Minister is compelled to resign, allowing the Sovereign to appoint a new Prime Minister. One may note that a Prime Minister may resign even if he or she is not defeated at the polls (for example, for personal health reasons); in such a case, the premiership goes to the new leader of the outgoing Prime Minister's party. In modern times, the House of Commons rather than the Lords is the source of most government ministers. By constitutional convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or House of Lords. A handful have been appointed who are outside Parliament but in most cases they subsequently entered Parliament either by means of a by-election or receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all Prime Ministers have been members of the Commons (the sole exception, the Earl of Home disclaimed his peerage days after becoming Prime Minister and was elected to the House of Commons as Sir Alec Douglas Home). No major cabinet position (except Lord Chancellor and Leader of the House of Lords) has been filled by a Lord since 1982 when Lord Carrington resigned as Foreign Secretary, though some of the middle rank Cabinet posts such as Defence Secretary and International Development Secretary have been filled by peers. The elected status of members of the Commons, as opposed to the unelected nature of members of the Lords, is seen to lend more legitimacy to ministers from the Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Ministers, and may decide to remove them at any time; the formal appointment or dismissal, however, is made by the Sovereign. The House of Commons scrutinises the Government through "Question Time," a period during which Members have the opportunity to ask questions of the Prime Minister and of other Cabinet Ministers. Prime Minister's Question Time occurs once each week, normally for a half-hour each Wednesday. Questions must relate to the responding Minister's official Government activities, not to his or her activities as a party leader or as a private Member of Parliament. Customarily, members of the Government party and members of the Opposition alternate when asking questions. In addition to questions asked orally during Question Time, Members of Parliament may also make inquiries in writing. In practice, the House of Commons' scrutiny of the Government is very weak. Since the First-Past-the-Post electoral system is employed in elections, the governing party tends to enjoy a large majority in the Commons; there is often limited need to compromise with other parties. Modern British political parties are so tightly organised that they leave relatively little room for free action by their MPs. Thus, during the twentieth century, the Government has lost confidence issues only thrice—twice in 1924, and once in 1979. The House of Commons technically retains the power to impeach Ministers of the Crown (or any other subject, even if not a public officer) for their crimes. Impeachments are tried by the House of Lords, where a simple majority is necessary to convict. The power of impeachment, however, has fallen into disuse; the House of Commons exercises its checks on the Government through other means such as No Confidence Motions. The last impeachment was that of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville in 1806.

Current composition

† Sinn Féin does not take its seats in Parliament because of their refusal to take the oath, which involves acknowledging the Queen.

The chamber in film and television

In 1986, the British television production company Granada Television created a full-sized replica of the House of Commons debating chamber at its studios in Manchester, for use in its adaptation of the Jeffrey Archer novel First Among Equals. The set was highly convincing, and was retained after the production – since then, it has been used in nearly every British film and television production which has featured scenes set in the chamber. From 1988 until 1999 it was also one of the prominent attractions on the Granada Studios Tour, where visitors could watch actors performing mock political debates on the set. In 2002 the set was purchased by the scriptwriter Paul Abbott so that it could be used in his BBC drama serial State of Play. Abbott, himself a former Granada Television staff writer, bought it personally as the set would otherwise have been destroyed and he feared it would take too long to get the necessary money from the BBC. He currently keeps it in storage in Oxford.

References

- Farnborough, T. E. May, 1st Baron. (1896). Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George the Third, 11th ed. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
- Mackenzie, K.R., "The English Parliament", (1950) Pelican Books.
- "Parliament" (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
- Pollard, Albert F. (1926). The Evolution of Parliament, 2nd ed. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
- Porritt, Edward, and Annie G. Porritt. (1903). The Unreformed House of Commons: Parliamentary Representation before 1832. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Raphael, D. D., Donald Limon, and W. R. McKay. (2004). Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice, 23rd ed. London: Butterworths Tolley. Abbott, Paul. Audio commentary on the DVD release of State of Play. BBC Worldwide. BBCDVD 1493.

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/a-z_of_parliament/ The British Broadcasting Corporation. (2005). "A–Z of Parliament."]
- [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/commons/ The Guardian. (2005). "Special Report: House of Commons."]
- [http://www.parliament.uk/ The Parliament of the United Kingdom. Official website.]
- [http://www.parliamentlive.tv/ The Parliament of the United Kingdom. Parliament Live TV.] United Kingdom United Kingdom House of Commons Category:Westminster System House of Commons House of Commons House of Commons ja:庶民院

Napoleon

] Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution, and the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from 11 November 1799 to 18 May 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français) and King of Italy under the name Napoleon I from 18 May 1804 to 6 April 1814, and again briefly from 20 March to 22 June 1815. Napoleon developed a number of innovative military strategies that led to many successful campaigns and surprising victories, as well as some spectacular failures. Over the course of little more than a decade, he fought virtually every European power and acquired control of most of the western and central mainland of Europe by conquest or alliance until his disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, followed by defeat at the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813, which led to his abdication several months later. He staged a comeback known as the Hundred Days (les Cent Jours), but was again defeated decisively at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18 1815, followed shortly afterwards by his surrender to the British and his exile to the island of Saint Helena, where he died. Aside from his military achievements, Napoleon is also remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic Code. He is considered to have been one of the "enlightened despots". Napoleon appointed several members of the Bonaparte family as monarchs. Although their reigns did not survive his downfall, a nephew, Napoleon III, ruled France later in the nineteenth century

Early life and military career

Napoleon III He was born Napoleone Buonaparte (in Corsican, Nabolione or Nabulione) in the city of Ajaccio on Corsica on 15 August 1769, only one year after the island was transferred to France by the Republic of Genoa. He later adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon Bonaparte. His family was of minor Corsican nobility. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI of France in 1778, where he remained for a number of years. The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, Maria Letizia Ramolino. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious Napoleon as a boy, nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter"). Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background and family connections afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time. At age ten, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château, a small town near Troyes, on 15 May 1779. He had to learn to speak French before entering the school, which he spoke with a marked Italian accent throughout his life, and never learned to spell properly. He earned high marks in mathematics and geography, and passable grades in other subjects. Upon graduation from Brienne in 1784, Bonaparte was admitted to the elite École Royale Militaire in Paris, where he completed the two year course of study in only one year. Although he had initially sought a naval assignment, he studied artillery at the École Militaire. Upon graduation in September, 1785, he was

Irish House of Commons

Famous members

See also

Parliament of Ireland

Early History

Powers

Organisation

Abolition

Footnotes

See also

Irish House of Lords

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

Official Residence

Role in Government

Irish Attitudes towards the Lord Lieutenant

See also

Further Reading

1801

Events

Ongoing events

Births

Deaths

Henry Grattan

Bibliography

Reference

British House of Commons

History

The Reform Acts and Parliament Acts

Members and elections

Qualifications

Officers

Procedure

Committees

Legislative functions

Relationship with the Government

Current composition

The chamber in film and television

See also

References

External links

Napoleon

Early life and military career