“ Doubtless that is always interesting ; that is a matter not only interesting to the Members, but it is interesting to outsiders. Anything of a personal character is sure to attract attention .” Is it strange that he thought the necessity of an official report was obviated by the very full reports given in The Times ? 55 Itwas the
manager of the Press Association - a co -operative association that supplied one hundred and seventy -two members and one hun
dred and one newspapers not members of the Association - who realized that, over and above the reports given in the press, Par liament should have somerecord of its transactions for historical
purposes, or for the purposes of the Members themselves." The inquiry had made it obvious that two things were equally
necessary , - a supply of daily reports to be used by the news papers, and the establishment of a parliamentary record, but the
report was made to the House of Commons too late in the session for definite action to be taken on it. The House of Lords was also concerned with parliamentary
reporting and in 1880 it conducted an exhaustive inquiry on the
subject , although the inquiry largely turned on the question of how to provide more adequate accommodations in the House of Lords for the increasing number of reporters.56 To these diverse systems of parliamentary reporting the line of Pope may well be applied : “ Man never is, but always to be
blest.” Samuel Whittaker favored official reports of parliamen tary debates since “ the first essentials of any system of reporting must ever be accuracy and absolute impartiality . These essen
tials are, in a great measure, neutralized, so far as the work of Parliamentary Reporting is undertaken by the Press, by the political bias which is inseparable from newspaper enterprise."57 The American Congress authorizes its own stenographic ver batim reports and these are published,as the Congressional Rec 65 When it was brought out in the inquiry that the reports given in the press could “ not be sufficient for the House of Commons as a source of reference, or a record of their transactions, " the representative of The Times
replied , “ I can not conceive what use it can be to the House to have a fuller report of such a matter ." — Report on Parliamentary Reporting, 1875 , p . 52.
56 Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Reporting. 1880. 67 Samuel Whittaker, Parliamentary Reporting in England , Foreign Coun tries, and the Colonies, Manchester, 1877.
