fil the will of the nation. Then why
doesn't it do it? If it has a job to do, why does it stand day after
day, week after week, year after year, cackling, cackling, cackling
about it? Can the mind of man conceive anything more intensely
ridiculous than this spectacle solemnly presented for our admiration
by the champions of the system, of six hundred garrulous old gentlemen
making a set and formal business of cackling--cackling, cackling,
cackling, with infinite pride in their own preposterous squeaking and
nagging, and then filing out one by one at intervals, like a stately
Lord Mayor's procession in the kingdom of the black and white
penguins? What is to be done with such a museum?"[569] "Government by
Parliament is a preposterous pretence--a delusion and a snare to the
people. It is a gag imposed by the classes on the aspirations of the
masses. Our Parliamentary representation is a fraud. If we could
appeal directly to the whole people as to whether willing workers
should starve, or little children suffer hunger, then something might
be done. But how can the electors express their desires on this vital
matter under our present electoral system?"[570]

Socialists complain that Parliament is run by a class. "It is colossal
impudence for a party paper to talk against 'class representation.'
Every class is over-represented--except the great working class. The
mines, the railways, the drink trade, the land, finance, the army
(officers), the navy (officers), the Church, the law, and most of the
big industries (employers) are represented largely in the House of
Commons. And nearly thirty millions of the working classes are
represented by about a dozen men, most of whom are palsied by their
allegiance to the Liberal party."[571] "The rich man's club at St.
Stephen's is merely a committee of plutocrats--rentmongers,
interestmongers, and profitmongers--assembled for the purpose of
safeguarding the spoils which the 'classes' have theftuously contrived
to heap up."[572] "The inequality of representation of classes in
Parliament at present is somewhat startling. It stands as follows:

_House of Lords_

Capitalist members 614
Labour members 0
---
Total 614

_House of Commons_

Capitalist members 640
Labour members 30