Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/202

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s vii. AUG. 2 s, 1920.

incidents arose in connexion with the enquiry concerning the demolition of the works at Dunkirk, the reference to proceedings of a former parliament and the production of papers.

" The Speaker then got up and said, with great resentment, it was not to be borne : That he sat there to keep the house to orderly debating and that he never saw such liberties taken in flying from the point before us. He desired gentlemen would

confine themselves as they ought to dp Mr.

Shippen then got up, and fell a talking in as irregular a manner as possible, in so much that the Speaker was forced to get up again, and in a great passion rebuked him personally, saying he would by the grace of God oblige every gentleman to be orderly."

The student of parliamentary procedure will find other pertinent questions besides that of reference to proceedings of former parliaments raised and discussed in these pages, as, for example, whether papers called for should be produced in original or whether copies must suffice ; and the pro- priety or impropriety of the introduction of the King's name in debate.

The first occasion apparently when women were admitted to the House to listen to the speech of their men folk, and the reason moving the Speaker to allow the innovation, is recorded in the following entry.

"Friday, May 5, 1732. This day I carried my wife and daughter Kitty to the House of Commons to hear Sir Archibald Grant make his defence. So many ladies said to be undone by the managers of the Charitable Corporation induced the ."Speaker to indulge ladies to be present in the gallery and wit- nesses of the justice the parliament are doing on those vile persons."

It was due to this indulgence therefore that Lady Percival and Miss Kitty looked upon the moving spectacle of the accused member, "after a tedious but insufficient defence," casting himself, with tears in his eyes, upon the compassion of the House, but without avail, and, finally, upon his expulsion with ignominy from among their number.

But the Diary is far from being a com- bination only of Hansard and the parlia- mentary journalist's art. This is only one feature of it. Percival was also in constant touch with the Court, the world of religion and philanthropy, and the ordinary society of his class. Ho was a lover of music and the drama, an habitual frequenter of the coffee-house ; and not neglectful of his family and his private affairs and the affairs of his relatives and friends, to all of which the daily lengthy entries in his diary, in laborious long hand, abundantly testify.

If he was not exactly a man " about the Court," he was constantly there : yet he

was not of " the dissolute gay people," " the selfish courtiers," to whom Thackeray in his researches could find no exception. It is plain that he was mightily pleased with, marks of attention from the King, with his long conversations with, the Queen, ancl with notice on the part of the Prince of Wales.

"I went to Court," he sets down, "where the- King again spoke to me, and it was the more? remarkable because there was a great crowd, many Dukes, Earls, &c., and he had spoke twice succes- sively before, yet I was the first he addressed him- self to after my Lord Russell had been presented to kiss his hand, and then he turned to the Frenchv Ambassador, and spoke to nobody else, but withr- drew."

He was often in attendance on Sunday* and "carried the sword " in the procession- to the chapel.

With the Queen conversations were long: and frequent, and the subjects and ipsissima verba of their talk are faithfully recorded. He took a fatherly interest in the young- prince whose conduct, while he gave evidence of an " excellent heart," was, however, of a, kind to operate " to the just scandal of all sober and religious folk," with whom Percival ranged himself. The Prince's character is- among those carefully drawn by Percival : that of Sir Robert Walpole, by the way, is- one of the others.

Religious practices and the calls of philan- thropy occupied much of his time and thought, and are punctiliously recorded,. When he was not able to attend public worship, at which he was a frequent "twicer," he never failed to read prayers and sermons at home. His intimate friendship with Bishop Berkeley has already been made the subject of a work by Dr. Benjamin Rand, published in 1914 by the Cambridge Univer- sity Press. He has much to say by way of story and criticism of the bishops and clergy of his day. In the business of the " Committee of Gaols," of the Trust for disposing of the Legacy left by Mr. Dalone for converting negroes to Christianity, of the Board of Trustees for the settlement of the Colony of Georgia in America, for whose early history this Diary is of the utmost value, he was closely associated with Mr. Oglethorpe, Captain Coram, and others active in the effort for social betterment.

The Diary is full of stories, gathered day by day during friendly intercourse around the dinner table, at the coffee-houses and else- where, and also contains some private histories imparted in confidence. The number of them would be embarrassing.