the kind could be got
through the upper chamber. Fresh impetus was afforded by the Osborne
Judgment, in which, on an appeal from the lower courts, the House of
Lords ruled in December, 1909, that the payment of parliamentary (p. 128)
members as such from the dues collected by labor organizations was
contrary to law. The announcement of the Judgment was followed by
persistent agitation for legislation to reverse the ruling. In
connection with the budget presented to the Commons by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer May 16, 1911, the proposition was made, not to take
action one way or the other upon the Lords' decision, but to provide
for the payment to all non-official members of the House of Commons of
a yearly salary of L400; and with little delay and no great amount of
opposition the proposal was enacted into law. The amount of the salary
provided is not large, but it is ample to render candidacy for seats
possible for numbers of men who formerly could not under any
circumstances have contemplated a public career.[185]

[Footnote 184: The sum provided from the party
funds was ordinarily L200 a year.]

[Footnote 185: On the privileges of the Commons see
Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, I.,
153-189; Lowell, Government of England, I., Chap.
11; Walpole, Electorate and Legislature, Chap. 5;
Redlich, Procedure of the House of Commons, III.,
42-50. A standard work in which the subject is
dealt with at length is May, Treatise on the Law,
Privileges, Proceedings, and Usage of Parliament,
Chaps. 3-6.]

V. THE FUNCTIONS OF PARLIAMENT

When the king summons the two chambers he does so, "being desirous and
resolved as soon as may be to meet his people, and to have their
advice in Parliament." No mention is made of legislative or financial
business, and, technically, Parliament is still essentially what
originally it was exclusively, i.e., a purely deliberative
assemblage. Practically, however, the mere discussion of public
questions and the giving of advice to the crown has become but one of
several distinctive parliamentary functions. The newer functions
which, with the passing of time, have acquired ever increasing
importance are, in effect, three. The first is that of criticism,
involving the habitual scru