CHAPTER VI

THE PARTY LEADERS IGNORE THEIR FEAR OF AN ORGANIZED CIVIL SERVICE

Mr. Disraeli, Chancellor of the Exchequer, opposes the enfranchisement of the civil servants. Mr. Gladstone, Leader of the Opposition, assents to enfranchisement, but expresses grave apprehensions of evil results.

One of the most extraordinary of the numerous astounding episodes in connection with the nationalization of the telegraphs was the fact that in the debates in the House of Commons was not even raised the question of possible danger arising from increasing enormously the number of civil servants. That is the more astounding, since, in 1867 and 1868, prominent men in both political parties had grave misgivings as to the future relations between the State and its employees, even though those employees who were in the Customs Department, the Inland Revenue Department, and the Post Office were at the time disfranchised.

[Sidenote: _Mr. Disraeli on Civil Servants_]

In July, 1867, while the House of Commons was passing the "Representation of the People Bill," Sir Harry Verney, a private member, moved the addition of a clause to enable public officers connected with the collection of the revenue to vote at elections.[70] The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Disraeli, asked the House not to accept the Amendment. He said: "He wished also to recall to the recollection of the committee a Treasury Minute which had been placed on the table, in which Minute the Government had drawn attention to the impropriety and impolicy of officers in those branches of the public service to which the honorable baronet [Sir Harry Verney] had referred, exercising their influence over Members of Parliament, in order to urge upon the Government an increase of their salaries. Even at the present time an influence was exerted which must be viewed with great jealousy, and every Government, however constituted, would find it necessary to use its utmost influence in restricting overtures of that description. But what would be the position of affairs if these persons--so numerous a body--were invested with the franchise. From the experience of what was passing in this city--and he wished merely to intimate, and not to dwell upon the circumstance--he was led to believe the result would be that there would be an organization illegitimately to increase the remuneration they received for their services--a remuneration which, in his opinion, was based upon a just estimate. He did not deny that the class referred to by the honorable baronet were entirely worthy of public confidence, but the conferring the franchise upon them would place them in a new position, and would introduce into public life new influences which would not be of a beneficial character. He trusted therefore that the committee would not sanction the proposal of the honorable baronet."

The amendment was lost; and in the following year, 1868, Mr. Monk, a private member, carried against the Government of the day, a bill to enfranchise the revenue officers.[71]

[Sidenote: _The Chancellor of the Exchequer on Civil Servants_]

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. G. W. Hunt, said he felt bound to move that the bill be committed this day three months--_i. e._, be rejected. He said it was an anomaly in the laws that the dockyard laborers were not disfranchised. "If the matter were inquired into calmly and dispassionately, he was not at all sure that a good case might not be made out for affixing to them the same disability that is now attached to the revenue officers. The fact did not at all tend to the purity or the impartiality of electors in places where many of these men were employed, and strenuous efforts were made by members representing them to increase the privileges of the dockyard men and the number of persons employed, which did not tend to economy or the proper husbanding of the national resources. Continual applications were made by these gentlemen [the employees in the Revenue Departments] respecting their position and salaries, and these applications had of late years taken a very peculiar form, being not merely made through the heads of departments, or by simple memorial to the treasury, but in the form of resolutions at public meetings held by them, and communications to Members of Parliament by delegates appointed to represent their interests. He put it to the House, whether, in the circumstances supposed, the influence possessed by them would not be very considerably increased, and whether the Government of the day would not have far greater difficulty in administering these departments with respect to the position and salaries of the officers concerned, if the measure were carried."[72]

[Sidenote: _Mr. Gladstone's Warning_]

Mr. Gladstone said: "The suggestion he would make would be that Parliament should give the vote, and, at the same time, leave it in the discretion of the Government of the day to inhibit any of these officers from taking any part in politics beyond giving their simple vote.... Again, before they proceeded to lay down the principle of general enfranchisement, one thing to be considered was the very peculiar relations between the revenue officers and the Members of that House. There it was necessary to speak plainly. He was not afraid of Government influence in that matter, nor of an influence in favor of one political party or another; but he owned that he had some apprehension of what might be called class influence in that House, which in his opinion was the great reproach of the Reformed Parliament, as he believed history would record. Whether they were going to emerge into a new state of things in which class influence would be weaker he knew not; but that class influence had been in many things evil and a scandal to them, especially for the last fifteen or twenty years; and he was fearful of its increase in consequence of the possession of the franchise, through the power which men who, as members of a regular service, were already organized, might bring to bear on Members of Parliament. What, he asked, was the Civil Service of this country? It was a service in which there was a great deal of complaint of inadequate pay, of slow promotion, and all the rest of it. But, at the same time, it was a service which there was an extraordinary desire to get into. And whose privilege was it to regulate that desire? That of the Members of that House...."

FOOTNOTES:

[70] _Hansard's Parliamentary Debates_, July 4, 1867, p. 1,032 and following.

[71] _Hansard's Parliamentary Debates_, June 10, 1868, p. 1,352 and following; June 12, p. 1,533 and following; and June 30, 1,868, p. 390 and following. Compare also: _Parliamentary Paper_, No. 325, Session 1867-68: _Copy of Report to the Treasury by the Commissioners of Customs and Inland Revenue upon the Revenue Officers' Disabilities Bill_.

[72] The measure was carried against the Government by a vote of 79 to 47.