A parliamentary Patriarch.

The day of the patriarchs has gone, but Parliaments still have Fathers, some of them long-lived. In fact, it is almost necessary for a Parliament to have a Father, one to whom the finger of constancy can point as to a faithful brook—parties may come and parties may go, but the Father remains as the symbol of continuity and of that personal quality which (some people say) rises above partyism and factional strife. The House of Commons has lately lost a Father by death, and the New Zealand House of Representatives has lost its Father by his recent transference to another sphere. But the most notable of all Fathers of Parliaments has just broken his record reign through the bad taste of the democracy in Japan. Tokio cabled that the February general election resulted in the defeat of M. Motoda, a former Minister and Speaker, “who has been a member continuously since the Diet was inaugurated in 1889.” To have sat continuously throughout the whole history of the legislative body of a Great Power is surely a record unique. It is physically possible only because Japan stepped in one stride from bows and arrows to world politics.

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