Chapter 22

[278]"Letters," March 7, 1731.[279]The last "call" of the Lords took place in 1901 on the trial of Earl Russell.[280]Grant's "Recollections," p. 52.[281]Fox asked Sir Fletcher Norton the same question. "What will happen?" replied the Speaker: "hang me if I either know or care!" "Life of Sidmouth," vol. i. p. 69 n.[282]In 1834 Lord Althorp and Sheil were locked up by the Sergeant-at-Arms, by order of the Speaker, until they had apologised to the House and one another for the use of unparliamentary language. Cf. O'Connell's "Recollections and Experiences," vol. i. p. 169.[283]Forster's "Sir John Eliot," vol. i. p. 238.[284]Mountmorris's "History of the Irish Parliament," vol. i. p. 77.[285]Palgrave's "House of Commons," p. 18. (The Speaker, however, does not appear to have thought it necessary to call upon the member for Coventry to withdraw his fierce and unparliamentary expression.)[286]Andrew Marvell's "Works," vol. ii. p. 33. (Sir Philip Harcourt might well have anticipated the remark made by the Georgian monarch who, while leaning out of a window, received a severe blow from a footman who had mistaken the royal back for that of his fellow-domestic, James. "Even if I had been James," the King plaintively exclaimed, "you needn't have hit me so hard!")[287]"Diary," December 19, 1666.[288]Reresby's "Memoirs," p. 231.[289]"Extracts of the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry," vol. ii. p. 35.[290]Samuel Rogers' "Recollections," p. 112.[291]Townsend's "History," vol. ii. p. 93.[292]Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors."[293]Grant's "Recollections of the House of Lords" (1834). (This is not the only instance of a well-known quotation passing unrecognized in Parliament. In 1853, when Bishop Wilberforce made a good-humoured attack on Lord Derby, the latter remarked that a man might "smile and smile and be a villain," and thereby caused much excitement among the Lords, who had not recently studied their "Hamlet.")[294]"Quarterly Review," vol. cxlv. p. 247.[295]"Letters of Runnymede," p. 6.[296]Trevelyan's "Life of Macaulay," vol. ii. p. 76.[297]"La France et L'Angleterre," par F. de Tassies. (Quoted in O'Connell's "Recollections," vol. i. p. 261.)[298]Thomas Moore's "Memoirs," vol. ii. p. 296.[299]Miss Martineau's "History of the Peace," vol. ii. p. 381.[300]Cockburn's "Life of Jeffrey," vol. i. p. 317.[301]Duncombe's "Life of his Father," vol. i. p. 115.[302]Brougham's "Life," vol. iii. p. 117.[303]Supra, p. 131.[304]Townshend's "Proceedings of Both Houses," p. 252.[305]Regulations in the Journals, March 23, 1693.[306]"L'lllustre enceinte présente souvent l'aspect d'une assemblée deyankeesbeaucoup plus que celui d'une réunion degentlemen." Franqueville's "Le Gouvernement et le Parlement britaniques," vol. iii. p. 74.[307]Timbs' "Anecdotal Biography," vol. i. p. 234.[308]Pryme's "Recollections," p. 114.[309]Harford's "Recollections of Wilberforce," p. 94.[310]Grant's "Recollections," p. 140.[311]Hayward's "Essays," pp. 364-5.[312]Bell's "Life of Canning," p. 251.[313]Pryme's "Recollections," p. 235.[314]Lord Colchester's "Diary," vol. i. p. 45.[315]"Quarterly Review," vol. xxii. p. 496.[316]Moore's "Life of Byron," 185.[317]Barnes' "Reminiscences," p. 203.[318]Prior's "Life of Burke," vol. i. p. 337.[319]Moore's "Life of Sheridan," vol. i. p. 523.[320]He never received the promised £1000. (See Harrington's "Personal Sketches of His Own Times," vol. i. p. 429.)[321]"Cornwallis Papers," vol. i. p. 364 n.[322]"Burke ... By whose sweetness Athens herself would have been soothed, with whose amplitude and exuberance she would have been enraptured, and on whose lips that prolific mother of genius and science would have adored, confessed, the Goddess of Persuasion." Prior's "Burke," p. 484.[323]Townsend's "History of the House of Commons," vol. ii. p. 427.[324]Forster's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 197.[325]Vol. vii. pp. 339-367.[326]Pryme's "Recollections," p. 218 n.[327]O'Flanaghan's "Lives of the Irish Chancellors," vol. ii. p. 128.[328]Townsend's "House of Commons," vol. ii. p. 394.[329]Morley's "Life of Gladstone," vol. i. p. 143.[330]Roper's "Life of More," p. 16.[331]MacCullagh's "Memoirs of Sheil," vol. ii. p. 99.[332]Speaking on Church reform, Sheil once said that when this was effected, "the bloated paunch of the unwieldy rector would no longer heave in holy magnitude beside the shrinking abdomen of the starving and miserably prolific curate." Francis's "Orators," p. 274.[333]Raikes's "Journal," vol. ii. p. 256.[334]Barrington's "Personal Sketches," vol. i. p. 213. (Curran once made a happy retort to Roche. "Do not speak of my honour," said the latter, "I am the guardian of my own honour." "Faith!" answered Curran, "I knew that at some time or other you would accept a sinecure." Philips's "Life of Curran," p. 59.)[335]"Memoirs," p. 89.[336]Whitty's "History of the Session" (1852-3), p. 7.[337]"Journal," vol. i. p. 342.[338]"Accustomed in their courts to consider every matter of equal importance," says Barnes, "they adopt the same earnest and stiff solemnity of manner, whether they are disputing about violated morality or insulted liberty, or about a petty affray where a hat, value one shilling, has been torn in a scuffle." "Parliamentary Sketches," p. 79.[339]D'Ewes' "Journal," p. 666.[340]"Life of Sidmouth," vol. i. p. 119.[341]Harford's "Recollections of Wilberforce," p. 95. (Guilford hastily resumed his seat, shortly afterwards applied for the Chiltern Hundreds, and retired into comfortable obscurity.)[342]His first effort in the Irish House, in 1709, was singularly abortive. "Mr. Speaker, I conceive——" he began. "Mr. Speaker, I conceive——" he stammered out again. Shouts of "Hear! hear!" encouraged him. "I conceive, Mr. Speaker——" he repeated, and then collapsed. A cruel colleague at once rose and remarked that the hon. gentleman had conceived three times and brought forth nothing! O'Flanagan's "Irish Chancellors," vol. ii. p. 8.[343]Moore's "Life of Sheridan," vol. i. p. 348.[344]Forster's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 195.[345]Dr. King's "Anecdotes of His Own Time," p. 114.[346]"Eloquence," said Bolingbroke, "must flow like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, and not spout forth a little frothy water on some gaudy day and remain dry the rest of the year."[347]Dalling's "Historical Characters," vol. ii. p. 175.[348]Barrow's "Mirror of Parliament" (1830).[349]Sir J. Mackintosh's "Memoirs," vol. ii p. 192.[350]Grattan used to walk about the park at Windsor haranguing the oaks in a loud voice. A passer-by once found him apostrophising an empty gibbet. "How did you get down?" asked the stranger politely. O'Flanagan, "Irish Chancellors," vol. ii. p. 416.[351]Letters, vol. ii. pp. 328-9.[352]"Lord Colchester's Diary," vol. i. p. 23.[353]"Pitt spoke like ten thousand angels," wrote Richard Grenville to George Grenville in November, 1742 ("Grenville Papers," vol. i. p. 19).[354]"Memoirs," vol. i. p. 490.[355]Prior's "Life of Malone," p. 361.[356]Samuel Roger's "Recollections," p. 80.[357]"Memoirs of Thomas Moore," vol. iv. p. 215. (Francis Howard compared Pitt's eloquence to Handel's music, see "Memoirs of Francis Howard," vol. i. p. 149.)[358]"Letters to his Son," vol. ii. p. 329.[359]"Letters," ii. 121.[360]"The hon. gentleman has applied to his imagination for his facts, and to his memory for his wit," is a remark he made in different forms on more than one occasion. See Harford's "Wilberforce," p. 167; Brougham's "Sketches," vol. iii. p. 294, etc.[361]Stapleton's "Life of Canning," p. 21.[362]"Men and Manners in Parliament," pp. 56-59.[363]Mr. R. Tennant, member for Belfast, in 1834, on O'Connell's motion for a repeal of the Union, made a speech which he had learnt by heart and sent to the papers, which lasted three and a half hours. Grant's "Recollections," p. 66.[364]Wraxall's "Memoirs," vol. iii. p. 402.[365]"Men and Manners in Parliament," p. 109. (Further on the writer describes the peculiarities of another member who used to fold his arms tightly across his chest when he spoke. Thereafter a constant struggle went on, the arms restlessly battling to get free, and the speaker insisting that they should remain and hear the speech out, p. 130.)[366]"Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding."[367]"Don't quote Latin. Say what you have to say and then sit down!" was the Duke of Wellington's excellent advice to a young member. Walter Bagehot, on the other hand, stated that he had heard an experienced financier say, "If you want to raise a certain cheer in the House of Commons, make a general panegyric on economy; if you want to invite a sure defeat, propose a particular saving!" "The English Constitution," p. 136.[368]Dalling's "Historical Characters," vol. ii. p. 39.[369]"Essays," vol. ii. p. 206.[370]Sir H. Crabb Robinson's "Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence," vol. i. p. 330.[371]On Sunday, August 8, 1641, both Houses attended divine service at St. Margaret's Church at 6 a.m., after which they sat in the House all the morning, and in the afternoon the King met them in the banqueting room at Whitehall. "Duirnall Occurrences," p. 80.[372]Forster's "Grand Remonstrance," p. 342.[373]Elsynge's "Ancient Method of Holding Parliaments," pp. 114-115.[374]The judicial sittings of the House begin at 10.30 a.m.[375]The proceedings very often resemble those of the old Irish House of Lords, which we find recorded in the Journals as "Prayers. Ordered, that the Judges be covered. Adjourned." See Charlemont's "Memoirs," vol. i. p. 103.[376]Palgrave's "House of Commons," p. 45.[377]The fact of any single member taking objection to a motion is sufficient to include it among "opposed" business, and in an assembly of partisans it would be too much to expect that any private member's Bill should avoid giving grounds of objection to at least one opponent.[378]May, p. 430.[379]In 1641, during the Long Parliament, Hyde was appointed Chairman of Committees, so as to get him out of the way, that he might not obstruct business by too much speaking. Parry's "Parliaments of England," p. 354.[380]Lytton's "Life of Palmerston," vol. i. p. 115.[381]Pellew's "Life of Sidmouth," vol. i. p. 76.[382]The right of "counting out" the House was not exercised until 1729. On May 19, 1876, the Commons failed to "make the House" for the first time since April 4, 1865. See Irving's "Annals of Our Time," vol. ii. p. 197.[383]Pearson's "Political Dictionary," pp. 23-4.[384]"The Manner of Holding Parliaments Prior to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth." "Somers Tract," p. 12.[385]"Diurnall Occurrences," p. 8.[386]In 1909, during the temporary absence of the Chaplain, the Speaker read prayers himself.[387]"Parl. Hist." ii. 1072. Butler refers to them in "Hudibras":"The oyster women lock'd their fish up,And trudg'd away to cry 'No Bishop!'"[388]Noorthouck's "A New History of London," p. 180. Scenes of a similar character occurred in the reign of George III., when the Gordon rioters stormed the Houses of Parliament, shouting "No Popery!" In 1871, a mob of matchmakers marched to Westminster to protest against a tax on matches, and were dispersed by the police. In still more recent times female deputations in favour of Woman's Suffrage, accompanied by a mob of inquisitive sightseers and a section of the criminal classes, have besieged the Palace of Westminster in a vain attempt to gain admittance to the House of Commons.[389]When during Garibaldi's visit to London, some one suggested that he should marry a wealthy widow with whom he spent much of his time it was objected that he already had a wife living. "Never mind," said a wag, "we will get Gladstone to explain her away!"[390]Palgrave's "House of Commons," p. 41.[391]Bagehot's "English Constitution," p. 181.[392]"Edinburgh Review," January, 1854, p. 254.[393]Hakewell's "Modus Tenendi Parliamentum," p. 142.[394]Bills of the most fantastic kind are from time to time introduced, though they seldom see the light of a Second Reading. In 1597 a member, Walgrave by name, brought in a Bill to prevent the exportation of herrings to Leghorn, "which occasioneth both a very great scarcity of Herrings within the Realm and is a great means of spending much Butter and Cheese, to the great inhancing of the prices thereof by reason of the said scarcity of Herrings."—D'Ewes' "Journal," p. 562.[395]Lord Waldegrave's "Memoirs," p. 133.[396]In June, 1835, however, a Mr. Fox Maule was refused permission to bring in a Bill "for the better protection of tenants' crops in Scotland from the ravages committed on them by several kinds of game."—Grant's "Recollections," p. 38.[397]Our ancestors were not always so well-mannered in their methods. Once when a Bill had been returned to them from the Lords with an amendment to a money clause, they expressed their active disapproval by literally kicking it along the floor of the House, and so out at the door. "Parl. Hist.," vol. xvii. p. 515.[398]It may be observed that among the many traditionary differences of opinion entertained by the two Houses is a divergence as to the proper spelling of the word "seigneurs."[399]A Conference of both Houses has not been held since 1836.[400]The Clerkship of the Parliaments is an ancient office, dating from the commencement of the fourteenth century. It was originally held by an ecclesiastic, to whom were assigned, in times when the two Houses sat together, the clerical work of Parliament. The Clerk of the Parliaments is appointed by the Crown under Letters Patent, and can only be removed by the Crown on an address from the House of Lords. Up to the year 1855, the post was a lucrative sinecure, worth about £7000 a year, the actual duties of the office being performed by the Clerk Assistant. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Clerk of the Parliaments enjoyed the privilege of nominating and appointing all the clerks on the House of Lords establishment, but in 1824 the appointment of the two other Clerks at the Table was transferred to the Lord Chancellor. He still, however, appoints all the other clerks, regulates and controls the duties and promotion of the staff, appoints the Librarian and his assistant, and exercises superintendence over the Library and the Refreshment Department of the House. It is his duty to attend all the sittings of the House, to call on the Orders of the Day, and to invite peers to bring forward their Bills or Motions. He also performs functions analogous to those of the Speaker in the Commons, when he signs Addresses to the sovereign, other Addresses of thanks or condolence, the minutes of the daily proceedings, and all the returns ordered by the House. As registrar of the Court of Final Appeal, he takes the instructions of the judicial authorities upon all questions relating to appeals, and keeps a record of all judgments, etc. Lastly, and this is perhaps not the least important of his duties, he gives the Royal Assent to Bills.[401]D'Ewes' "Journal," p. 683, and Townshend's "Proceedings of Parliament," p. 322.[402]In 1810, another system was temporarily introduced, the members ranging themselves on either side of the House and being counted by the tellers. Croker, when Ministerial teller, once accidentally missed out a whole bench full of Government supporters, thereby reducing the Ministerial majority by about forty. The Opposition teller watched the error with a smile, but did not feel called upon to correct it. See "The Observer," March 11, 1810.[403]In the Session of 1881 the number of divisions was about 400; in 1908, including the autumn Session, the number was 463, and in 1909 the House of Commons divided 918 times.[404]Only fifteen ties are known in the history of Parliament On April 3, 1905, Speaker Gully gave a casting vote on the Embankment Tramways Bill, as did Speaker Lowther, on July 22, 1910, on the Regency Bill.[405]This right of protest recorded in the Journals of the House is still occasionally exercised.[406]"Life of Lord George Bentinck," p. 314.[407]Ewald's "Biography of Walpole," p. 419.[408]"Chambers' Journal," December 26, 1886, p. 819.[409]Porritt's "Unreformed House of Commons," vol. i. p. 509.[410]Until a few years ago all "whips" were underlined twice and in urgent cases five times.[411]"Ode to the Doctor." (Bragge Bathurst, Lord Sidmouth's brother-in-law, and Riley, his brother, were place-hunters who felt bound to applaud their patron.)[412]House of Commons "Journals," vol. x. 291.[413]D'Ewes' "Journal," p. 334.[414]Pinkerton's "Voyages," vol. ii. p. 506.[415]"Report of the Select Committee on the Establishment of the House of Commons" (1833), pp. 84-5. (To-day the messengers and doorkeepers, of whom there are about a score, earn regular salaries ranging from £120 to £300. Except for a share in the fund for messengers and police to which members may or may not contribute, no gratuities of any description are allowed to them.)[416]The familiar way in which Pearson addressed members seems to have been generally condoned on account of his long service. Once when General Grant, who had boasted that he would march victoriously through America with three thousand men, asked the door-keeper how long a certain member would speak, Pearson replied, "As long, General, if he was allowed, as you would be in marching through and conquering America!" Pearson's "Political Dictionary," p. 10.

[278]"Letters," March 7, 1731.

[279]The last "call" of the Lords took place in 1901 on the trial of Earl Russell.

[280]Grant's "Recollections," p. 52.

[281]Fox asked Sir Fletcher Norton the same question. "What will happen?" replied the Speaker: "hang me if I either know or care!" "Life of Sidmouth," vol. i. p. 69 n.

[282]In 1834 Lord Althorp and Sheil were locked up by the Sergeant-at-Arms, by order of the Speaker, until they had apologised to the House and one another for the use of unparliamentary language. Cf. O'Connell's "Recollections and Experiences," vol. i. p. 169.

[283]Forster's "Sir John Eliot," vol. i. p. 238.

[284]Mountmorris's "History of the Irish Parliament," vol. i. p. 77.

[285]Palgrave's "House of Commons," p. 18. (The Speaker, however, does not appear to have thought it necessary to call upon the member for Coventry to withdraw his fierce and unparliamentary expression.)

[286]Andrew Marvell's "Works," vol. ii. p. 33. (Sir Philip Harcourt might well have anticipated the remark made by the Georgian monarch who, while leaning out of a window, received a severe blow from a footman who had mistaken the royal back for that of his fellow-domestic, James. "Even if I had been James," the King plaintively exclaimed, "you needn't have hit me so hard!")

[287]"Diary," December 19, 1666.

[288]Reresby's "Memoirs," p. 231.

[289]"Extracts of the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry," vol. ii. p. 35.

[290]Samuel Rogers' "Recollections," p. 112.

[291]Townsend's "History," vol. ii. p. 93.

[292]Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors."

[293]Grant's "Recollections of the House of Lords" (1834). (This is not the only instance of a well-known quotation passing unrecognized in Parliament. In 1853, when Bishop Wilberforce made a good-humoured attack on Lord Derby, the latter remarked that a man might "smile and smile and be a villain," and thereby caused much excitement among the Lords, who had not recently studied their "Hamlet.")

[294]"Quarterly Review," vol. cxlv. p. 247.

[295]"Letters of Runnymede," p. 6.

[296]Trevelyan's "Life of Macaulay," vol. ii. p. 76.

[297]"La France et L'Angleterre," par F. de Tassies. (Quoted in O'Connell's "Recollections," vol. i. p. 261.)

[298]Thomas Moore's "Memoirs," vol. ii. p. 296.

[299]Miss Martineau's "History of the Peace," vol. ii. p. 381.

[300]Cockburn's "Life of Jeffrey," vol. i. p. 317.

[301]Duncombe's "Life of his Father," vol. i. p. 115.

[302]Brougham's "Life," vol. iii. p. 117.

[303]Supra, p. 131.

[304]Townshend's "Proceedings of Both Houses," p. 252.

[305]Regulations in the Journals, March 23, 1693.

[306]"L'lllustre enceinte présente souvent l'aspect d'une assemblée deyankeesbeaucoup plus que celui d'une réunion degentlemen." Franqueville's "Le Gouvernement et le Parlement britaniques," vol. iii. p. 74.

[307]Timbs' "Anecdotal Biography," vol. i. p. 234.

[308]Pryme's "Recollections," p. 114.

[309]Harford's "Recollections of Wilberforce," p. 94.

[310]Grant's "Recollections," p. 140.

[311]Hayward's "Essays," pp. 364-5.

[312]Bell's "Life of Canning," p. 251.

[313]Pryme's "Recollections," p. 235.

[314]Lord Colchester's "Diary," vol. i. p. 45.

[315]"Quarterly Review," vol. xxii. p. 496.

[316]Moore's "Life of Byron," 185.

[317]Barnes' "Reminiscences," p. 203.

[318]Prior's "Life of Burke," vol. i. p. 337.

[319]Moore's "Life of Sheridan," vol. i. p. 523.

[320]He never received the promised £1000. (See Harrington's "Personal Sketches of His Own Times," vol. i. p. 429.)

[321]"Cornwallis Papers," vol. i. p. 364 n.

[322]"Burke ... By whose sweetness Athens herself would have been soothed, with whose amplitude and exuberance she would have been enraptured, and on whose lips that prolific mother of genius and science would have adored, confessed, the Goddess of Persuasion." Prior's "Burke," p. 484.

[323]Townsend's "History of the House of Commons," vol. ii. p. 427.

[324]Forster's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 197.

[325]Vol. vii. pp. 339-367.

[326]Pryme's "Recollections," p. 218 n.

[327]O'Flanaghan's "Lives of the Irish Chancellors," vol. ii. p. 128.

[328]Townsend's "House of Commons," vol. ii. p. 394.

[329]Morley's "Life of Gladstone," vol. i. p. 143.

[330]Roper's "Life of More," p. 16.

[331]MacCullagh's "Memoirs of Sheil," vol. ii. p. 99.

[332]Speaking on Church reform, Sheil once said that when this was effected, "the bloated paunch of the unwieldy rector would no longer heave in holy magnitude beside the shrinking abdomen of the starving and miserably prolific curate." Francis's "Orators," p. 274.

[333]Raikes's "Journal," vol. ii. p. 256.

[334]Barrington's "Personal Sketches," vol. i. p. 213. (Curran once made a happy retort to Roche. "Do not speak of my honour," said the latter, "I am the guardian of my own honour." "Faith!" answered Curran, "I knew that at some time or other you would accept a sinecure." Philips's "Life of Curran," p. 59.)

[335]"Memoirs," p. 89.

[336]Whitty's "History of the Session" (1852-3), p. 7.

[337]"Journal," vol. i. p. 342.

[338]"Accustomed in their courts to consider every matter of equal importance," says Barnes, "they adopt the same earnest and stiff solemnity of manner, whether they are disputing about violated morality or insulted liberty, or about a petty affray where a hat, value one shilling, has been torn in a scuffle." "Parliamentary Sketches," p. 79.

[339]D'Ewes' "Journal," p. 666.

[340]"Life of Sidmouth," vol. i. p. 119.

[341]Harford's "Recollections of Wilberforce," p. 95. (Guilford hastily resumed his seat, shortly afterwards applied for the Chiltern Hundreds, and retired into comfortable obscurity.)

[342]His first effort in the Irish House, in 1709, was singularly abortive. "Mr. Speaker, I conceive——" he began. "Mr. Speaker, I conceive——" he stammered out again. Shouts of "Hear! hear!" encouraged him. "I conceive, Mr. Speaker——" he repeated, and then collapsed. A cruel colleague at once rose and remarked that the hon. gentleman had conceived three times and brought forth nothing! O'Flanagan's "Irish Chancellors," vol. ii. p. 8.

[343]Moore's "Life of Sheridan," vol. i. p. 348.

[344]Forster's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 195.

[345]Dr. King's "Anecdotes of His Own Time," p. 114.

[346]"Eloquence," said Bolingbroke, "must flow like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, and not spout forth a little frothy water on some gaudy day and remain dry the rest of the year."

[347]Dalling's "Historical Characters," vol. ii. p. 175.

[348]Barrow's "Mirror of Parliament" (1830).

[349]Sir J. Mackintosh's "Memoirs," vol. ii p. 192.

[350]Grattan used to walk about the park at Windsor haranguing the oaks in a loud voice. A passer-by once found him apostrophising an empty gibbet. "How did you get down?" asked the stranger politely. O'Flanagan, "Irish Chancellors," vol. ii. p. 416.

[351]Letters, vol. ii. pp. 328-9.

[352]"Lord Colchester's Diary," vol. i. p. 23.

[353]"Pitt spoke like ten thousand angels," wrote Richard Grenville to George Grenville in November, 1742 ("Grenville Papers," vol. i. p. 19).

[354]"Memoirs," vol. i. p. 490.

[355]Prior's "Life of Malone," p. 361.

[356]Samuel Roger's "Recollections," p. 80.

[357]"Memoirs of Thomas Moore," vol. iv. p. 215. (Francis Howard compared Pitt's eloquence to Handel's music, see "Memoirs of Francis Howard," vol. i. p. 149.)

[358]"Letters to his Son," vol. ii. p. 329.

[359]"Letters," ii. 121.

[360]"The hon. gentleman has applied to his imagination for his facts, and to his memory for his wit," is a remark he made in different forms on more than one occasion. See Harford's "Wilberforce," p. 167; Brougham's "Sketches," vol. iii. p. 294, etc.

[361]Stapleton's "Life of Canning," p. 21.

[362]"Men and Manners in Parliament," pp. 56-59.

[363]Mr. R. Tennant, member for Belfast, in 1834, on O'Connell's motion for a repeal of the Union, made a speech which he had learnt by heart and sent to the papers, which lasted three and a half hours. Grant's "Recollections," p. 66.

[364]Wraxall's "Memoirs," vol. iii. p. 402.

[365]"Men and Manners in Parliament," p. 109. (Further on the writer describes the peculiarities of another member who used to fold his arms tightly across his chest when he spoke. Thereafter a constant struggle went on, the arms restlessly battling to get free, and the speaker insisting that they should remain and hear the speech out, p. 130.)

[366]"Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding."

[367]"Don't quote Latin. Say what you have to say and then sit down!" was the Duke of Wellington's excellent advice to a young member. Walter Bagehot, on the other hand, stated that he had heard an experienced financier say, "If you want to raise a certain cheer in the House of Commons, make a general panegyric on economy; if you want to invite a sure defeat, propose a particular saving!" "The English Constitution," p. 136.

[368]Dalling's "Historical Characters," vol. ii. p. 39.

[369]"Essays," vol. ii. p. 206.

[370]Sir H. Crabb Robinson's "Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence," vol. i. p. 330.

[371]On Sunday, August 8, 1641, both Houses attended divine service at St. Margaret's Church at 6 a.m., after which they sat in the House all the morning, and in the afternoon the King met them in the banqueting room at Whitehall. "Duirnall Occurrences," p. 80.

[372]Forster's "Grand Remonstrance," p. 342.

[373]Elsynge's "Ancient Method of Holding Parliaments," pp. 114-115.

[374]The judicial sittings of the House begin at 10.30 a.m.

[375]The proceedings very often resemble those of the old Irish House of Lords, which we find recorded in the Journals as "Prayers. Ordered, that the Judges be covered. Adjourned." See Charlemont's "Memoirs," vol. i. p. 103.

[376]Palgrave's "House of Commons," p. 45.

[377]The fact of any single member taking objection to a motion is sufficient to include it among "opposed" business, and in an assembly of partisans it would be too much to expect that any private member's Bill should avoid giving grounds of objection to at least one opponent.

[378]May, p. 430.

[379]In 1641, during the Long Parliament, Hyde was appointed Chairman of Committees, so as to get him out of the way, that he might not obstruct business by too much speaking. Parry's "Parliaments of England," p. 354.

[380]Lytton's "Life of Palmerston," vol. i. p. 115.

[381]Pellew's "Life of Sidmouth," vol. i. p. 76.

[382]The right of "counting out" the House was not exercised until 1729. On May 19, 1876, the Commons failed to "make the House" for the first time since April 4, 1865. See Irving's "Annals of Our Time," vol. ii. p. 197.

[383]Pearson's "Political Dictionary," pp. 23-4.

[384]"The Manner of Holding Parliaments Prior to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth." "Somers Tract," p. 12.

[385]"Diurnall Occurrences," p. 8.

[386]In 1909, during the temporary absence of the Chaplain, the Speaker read prayers himself.

[387]"Parl. Hist." ii. 1072. Butler refers to them in "Hudibras":"The oyster women lock'd their fish up,And trudg'd away to cry 'No Bishop!'"

[387]"Parl. Hist." ii. 1072. Butler refers to them in "Hudibras":

"The oyster women lock'd their fish up,And trudg'd away to cry 'No Bishop!'"

[388]Noorthouck's "A New History of London," p. 180. Scenes of a similar character occurred in the reign of George III., when the Gordon rioters stormed the Houses of Parliament, shouting "No Popery!" In 1871, a mob of matchmakers marched to Westminster to protest against a tax on matches, and were dispersed by the police. In still more recent times female deputations in favour of Woman's Suffrage, accompanied by a mob of inquisitive sightseers and a section of the criminal classes, have besieged the Palace of Westminster in a vain attempt to gain admittance to the House of Commons.

[389]When during Garibaldi's visit to London, some one suggested that he should marry a wealthy widow with whom he spent much of his time it was objected that he already had a wife living. "Never mind," said a wag, "we will get Gladstone to explain her away!"

[390]Palgrave's "House of Commons," p. 41.

[391]Bagehot's "English Constitution," p. 181.

[392]"Edinburgh Review," January, 1854, p. 254.

[393]Hakewell's "Modus Tenendi Parliamentum," p. 142.

[394]Bills of the most fantastic kind are from time to time introduced, though they seldom see the light of a Second Reading. In 1597 a member, Walgrave by name, brought in a Bill to prevent the exportation of herrings to Leghorn, "which occasioneth both a very great scarcity of Herrings within the Realm and is a great means of spending much Butter and Cheese, to the great inhancing of the prices thereof by reason of the said scarcity of Herrings."—D'Ewes' "Journal," p. 562.

[395]Lord Waldegrave's "Memoirs," p. 133.

[396]In June, 1835, however, a Mr. Fox Maule was refused permission to bring in a Bill "for the better protection of tenants' crops in Scotland from the ravages committed on them by several kinds of game."—Grant's "Recollections," p. 38.

[397]Our ancestors were not always so well-mannered in their methods. Once when a Bill had been returned to them from the Lords with an amendment to a money clause, they expressed their active disapproval by literally kicking it along the floor of the House, and so out at the door. "Parl. Hist.," vol. xvii. p. 515.

[398]It may be observed that among the many traditionary differences of opinion entertained by the two Houses is a divergence as to the proper spelling of the word "seigneurs."

[399]A Conference of both Houses has not been held since 1836.

[400]The Clerkship of the Parliaments is an ancient office, dating from the commencement of the fourteenth century. It was originally held by an ecclesiastic, to whom were assigned, in times when the two Houses sat together, the clerical work of Parliament. The Clerk of the Parliaments is appointed by the Crown under Letters Patent, and can only be removed by the Crown on an address from the House of Lords. Up to the year 1855, the post was a lucrative sinecure, worth about £7000 a year, the actual duties of the office being performed by the Clerk Assistant. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Clerk of the Parliaments enjoyed the privilege of nominating and appointing all the clerks on the House of Lords establishment, but in 1824 the appointment of the two other Clerks at the Table was transferred to the Lord Chancellor. He still, however, appoints all the other clerks, regulates and controls the duties and promotion of the staff, appoints the Librarian and his assistant, and exercises superintendence over the Library and the Refreshment Department of the House. It is his duty to attend all the sittings of the House, to call on the Orders of the Day, and to invite peers to bring forward their Bills or Motions. He also performs functions analogous to those of the Speaker in the Commons, when he signs Addresses to the sovereign, other Addresses of thanks or condolence, the minutes of the daily proceedings, and all the returns ordered by the House. As registrar of the Court of Final Appeal, he takes the instructions of the judicial authorities upon all questions relating to appeals, and keeps a record of all judgments, etc. Lastly, and this is perhaps not the least important of his duties, he gives the Royal Assent to Bills.

[401]D'Ewes' "Journal," p. 683, and Townshend's "Proceedings of Parliament," p. 322.

[402]In 1810, another system was temporarily introduced, the members ranging themselves on either side of the House and being counted by the tellers. Croker, when Ministerial teller, once accidentally missed out a whole bench full of Government supporters, thereby reducing the Ministerial majority by about forty. The Opposition teller watched the error with a smile, but did not feel called upon to correct it. See "The Observer," March 11, 1810.

[403]In the Session of 1881 the number of divisions was about 400; in 1908, including the autumn Session, the number was 463, and in 1909 the House of Commons divided 918 times.

[404]Only fifteen ties are known in the history of Parliament On April 3, 1905, Speaker Gully gave a casting vote on the Embankment Tramways Bill, as did Speaker Lowther, on July 22, 1910, on the Regency Bill.

[405]This right of protest recorded in the Journals of the House is still occasionally exercised.

[406]"Life of Lord George Bentinck," p. 314.

[407]Ewald's "Biography of Walpole," p. 419.

[408]"Chambers' Journal," December 26, 1886, p. 819.

[409]Porritt's "Unreformed House of Commons," vol. i. p. 509.

[410]Until a few years ago all "whips" were underlined twice and in urgent cases five times.

[411]"Ode to the Doctor." (Bragge Bathurst, Lord Sidmouth's brother-in-law, and Riley, his brother, were place-hunters who felt bound to applaud their patron.)

[412]House of Commons "Journals," vol. x. 291.

[413]D'Ewes' "Journal," p. 334.

[414]Pinkerton's "Voyages," vol. ii. p. 506.

[415]"Report of the Select Committee on the Establishment of the House of Commons" (1833), pp. 84-5. (To-day the messengers and doorkeepers, of whom there are about a score, earn regular salaries ranging from £120 to £300. Except for a share in the fund for messengers and police to which members may or may not contribute, no gratuities of any description are allowed to them.)

[416]The familiar way in which Pearson addressed members seems to have been generally condoned on account of his long service. Once when General Grant, who had boasted that he would march victoriously through America with three thousand men, asked the door-keeper how long a certain member would speak, Pearson replied, "As long, General, if he was allowed, as you would be in marching through and conquering America!" Pearson's "Political Dictionary," p. 10.

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