The Government of England (Vol. I)

by A. Lawrence Lowell

Another means of pressure is found in social influence, which counts for much in English public life; and for that reason it is considered important to have as chief whip a man of high social standing as well as of pleasant manners and general popularity. The power of social influence has always been great in England, more particularly among the Conservatives. In 1853, Disraeli, who was trying hard to build up the Tory party, and had at the time little else to build it with, urged the importance of Lord Derby's asking all his followers in Parliament to dinner in the course of the session.[454:1] Nor does the use of influence of this kind appear to have declined. It has been said of late years that if a Unionist did not vote with his party, he was not invited to the functions at the Foreign Office; and the weakness of the Liberals for nearly a score of years after the split over Home Rule was due in no small part to the fact that they had very little social influence at their command. A sudden political conversion some years ago was attributed to disappointment of the member at the small number of invitations received through Liberal connections; and the change of faith no doubt met its reward, for it was followed in time by knighthood.

Payment of Election Expenses.

Finally the whips have, upon a certain number of members, a claim arising from gratitude. Elections are expensive for the candidate, and it is not always easy to find a man who is ready to incur the needful cost and trouble, especially when the chance of success is not large. Under these conditions the central office of the party, which is under the control of the leaders and the whip, will often contribute toward a candidate's expenses. It is done most frequently in well-nigh hopeless constituencies, and therefore the proportion of men who have received such aid is much greater among defeated than among elected candidates; although the cases are by no means confined to the former class. How often aid is given, and in what cases it is given, is never known, for the whip naturally keeps his own counsel about the matter; but the number of members on each side of the House, a part of whose election expenses have been paid from the party treasury, is not inconsiderable. Upon these men the whips have, of course, a strong claim which can be used to secure their attendance and votes when needed.

If all the means of pressure which the whips can bring to bear are unavailing, and the supporters of the government who propose to vote against it are enough to turn the scale, or if the whips report that the dissatisfaction is widespread, the cabinet will, if possible, modify its position. This is said to have been the real cause of the apparent surrender of the Liberal ministry to the demands of the Labour Party upon the bill to regulate the liability of trade unions in 1906. The whips found that many of their own followers had pledged themselves so deeply that they could not support the government bill as it stood.

The Whips as Tellers.

When the government is interested in the result of a vote, it informs the Speaker that it would like its whips appointed tellers in the division, a suggestion with which he always complies. This is the sign that the ministers are calling for the support of all their followers, and that the division is to be upon party lines. Often in the course of a debate upon some amendment to a government bill, one hears a member, rising behind the Treasury Bench, appeal to the leader of the House not to put pressure upon his supporters on that question. He means that the government whips shall not be made the tellers, in which case each member is free to vote as he thinks best without a breach of party loyalty, and the result, whatever it may be, is not regarded as a defeat for the cabinet. Occasionally this is done, but not often; because on the question so treated the government, in abandoning its leadership, is exposed to a charge of weakness; and also because it is unsafe to do it unless the ministers are quite indifferent about the result, for the effect of the pressure on the votes of many members is very great.

No Other Party Machinery in Parliament.

The whips may be said to constitute the only regular party organisation in the House of Commons, unless we include under that description the two front benches. The very fact, indeed, that the ministry and the leaders of the Opposition furnish in themselves the real party machinery of the House, avoids the need of any other. The ministers prepare and carry out the programme of the party in power, while a small coterie of leaders on the other side devise the plans for opposing them. The front bench thus does the work of a party committee or council, and in neither of the great parties is there anything resembling a general caucus for the discussion and determination of party policy. Sometimes a great meeting of the adherents of the party in Parliament is called at one of the political clubs or elsewhere, when the leaders address their followers. But it is held to exhort, not to consult; and, in fact, surprise is sometimes expressed by private members that the chiefs take them so little into their confidence.[456:1]

The organisation of the two great parties in Parliament has almost a military character, with the cabinet as the general staff, and the leader of the House as the commander in the field. This is naturally far less true of lesser groups, which have not the tradition of cabinet leadership to keep them in line. In their case a real caucus of the party, to consider the position it shall assume in a crisis, is not unknown. Two particularly celebrated meetings of that kind took place within a few years of each other: one held by the Liberal Unionists before the vote on the Home Rule Bill in 1886; the other the meeting of the Irish Nationalists which deposed Parnell from the leadership of the party in 1890.

A caucus of one of the two great parties has occasionally been held to select a leader in the House, in those rare cases where it has found itself in Opposition without a chief. This happened, for example, in 1899, when the post of leader having been left vacant by the retirement of Sir William Harcourt therefrom in the preceding December, the Liberal members of the House met on the day before the opening of the session, and chose Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman to succeed him. Sir Henry thenceforward led the party in the Commons, and became, in due course, Prime Minister, when the Liberals came to power in 1905. Except, however, for an accident of that sort, neither of the two great parties has any machinery for choosing its chiefs, or deciding upon its course of action. The leaders, and when the party comes to power the ministers, are, no doubt, indirectly selected by the party itself, for they are the men who have shown themselves able to win its confidence, and command its support. But the choice is not made by any formal vote; nor is it always precisely such as would result from a vote. The Prime Minister, if not himself in the Commons, appoints the leader of the House and his principal lieutenants, being guided in the choice by his own estimate of their hold upon the party, and by the advice of the other chiefs. When appointed, the leader leads, and the party follows.