Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/442

426. The public good is often the thing least thought of. On the other hand, the predominant general motive is the desire of the party in power to keep the other party out; and each member of the body has some "axe to grind," either his own, or the axe of his constituents or of some private or corporate interest. The same was the case in England, till the passage in 1848 of the "standing orders," by which a complete separation was effected in the method of treatment of public and of private and local bills. Public bills are now placed under the wing of the Cabinet. Private and local bills are no longer treated as legislation, strictly speaking, but as petitions to Parliament for special immunity or privileges which are conducted by private parties, and are subject to a strict rule of procedure. They are tried as a lawsuit, in which the petition and bill are filed before the beginning of the session, "and opposed at every step, as a whole and in detail, by the Board of Trade and by every private interest which may be menaced or affected thereby. Counter-petitions, attorneys, counsel, and a trial, a standing and a day in court to all parties in interest before the bill can become a law, prevent wrong to individuals; counsel for the ministry for the public bills, and special counsel for the private bills, committees to aid them in the intelligent discharge of their work, prevent the possibility of working, by collusion, a public wrong." The details of these measures, which we have not space to follow, are carefully adjusted to secure their successful working. The prohibition of special legislation, which has been incorporated into some of our State Constitutions, is regarded by Mr. Sterne as unphilosophical; for there must always be exceptional cases which general legislation can not cover, but for which special provisions are necessary; and it is this need which is recognized in the British system. The prohibition, moreover, defeats itself, for it is evaded, and worse measures are passed for special ends, under the pretense of generality, than could succeed if they were presented in their real character. Mr. Sterne has proposed a detailed plan for a system of legislative procedure, modeled after the British "standing orders," which deserves at least to be thought over.

British Hens and Eggs.—By actual count (for a census has been taken), Great Britain and Ireland contain thirty million head of poultry of all kinds, twenty million of which may be classed under the head of "chickens." The laying hens, which may be estimated to constitute one fourth of the chickens, or five million head, may lay from seventy to two hundred eggs a year. It is safe to average the number at from eighty to one hundred for each hen. This would give four or five hundred million eggs a year. Between a third and a half of the whole stock of poultry are consumed every year. Some of the English cottages derive as much as twenty-two pounds, or a hundred and ten dollars a year, from their fowls, half of which is profit. The poultry are bought up lean by "higglers" or "hagglers," and are fattened for the market by "crammers," who make this their special business. The feeding is performed by machinery, by a rapid process, and the trade is a growing one. The home supply being estimated at eight million chickens a year, and the fowls being valued at two shillings each, we have an annual market value for this stock of £800,000, or $4,000,000. This does not include the turkeys, ducks, and geese, of which eight million are returned in Great Britain and Ireland. If the same proportions of these are brought to market as of chickens, rating them at five shillings a head, we may, by adding the proceeds from them, raise our poultry account to £1,000,000, or $5,000,000. It is impossible to calculate the number of eggs that arc consumed in the United Kingdom. If twenty million of the population eat an egg a week, that would be ten hundred and forty millions a year. It is known, however, that during 1883 there were imported nine hundred and forty million four hundred and thirty-six thousand one hundred and sixty eggs, and they were worth £2,732,055, or five times as many dollars; and up to the end of August, 1884, six hundred and eighty-one million six hundred and eighty-three thousand and forty had been received. The home hens are supposed to furnish five hundred million eggs. Adding these to the foreign supply, and valuing the whole at a penny an egg, we have Great Britain's egg bill, £6,250,000, or $31,250,000.