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 The Quaint Side of Parliament.

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THE QUAINT SIDE OF PARLIAMENT. EVERY human institution probably has an element of the quaint or the ridic ulous in its composition. Certainly, Par liament, with all its solemnity and majesty, as befits the greatest and most powerful legislature in the world, has its quaint side, without making at which, Westminster indeed, the would business often of be lawdull and prosaic. The rules of procedure which have for centuries regulated the proceedings of the House of Commons are a fruitful source of embarrassment and confusion to new mem bers. Some members, indeed, never thor oughly master the usages of the House, and they go through Parliamentary life with a perpetually reproving cry of " Order! Or der! " from Mr. Speaker ringing in their ears. Even old official members frequently be tray their ignorance of the rules of proce dure. Lord Palmerston was in the House many years before he became its leader on his appointment as Prime Minister; but he then made the embarrassing discovery that he was inadequately acquainted with the customs of the House, and with a grim determination to at once master the rules, he stuck for weeks to the treasury bench, from the opening of each sitting till its close, with only an hour's interval for din ner, eagerly on the watch for incidents illus trative of Parliamentary procedure. Again, the late Mr. W. H. Smith was not aware, on being appointed Lord Warden of Walmer, at a time when he was leader of the House, that it was necessary for him to vacate his seat, having accepted an office of profit un der the Crown; and as he actually entered the House and spoke after his appointment, without having first gone to his constituents for a renewal of their trust, he incurred pen alties amounting to .£1,500 if any one chose — and the choice was open to every citizen

of the kingdom — to bring an action against him in the courts of law. Mr. Smith did subsequently resign, and was returned again without delay as member for the Strand divi sion of Westminster. "How can I learn the rules of the House?" asked a newly elected Irish member of the late Mr. Parnell. " By breaking them," was the prompt reply of the Irish leader, who, as is well known, spoke from experience on the point. But few members would care to adopt that heroic method of obtaining the desired knowledge, and their task in master ing the rules is rendered all the more diffi cult by the curious fact that many of these regulations are unwritten. Some will be found in the Standing Orders or permanent rules passed from time to time by the House to regulate its own procedure; but those that deal with etiquette and decorum have not been officially recorded anywhere, save in a few quaint and obsolete regulations to be found in the old issues of the journals of the House, or the minutes of proceedings taken by the clerk and published daily dur ing the session. For instance, a strange rule for the guidance of the Speaker is set down under the i5th of February, 1620: "The Speaker not to move his hat until the third congee." Propriety of carriage in leaving the chamber is thus enforced : " Those who go out of the House in a confused manner before the Speaker to forfeit ioj." This rule is dated the I2th of November, 1640. Again, we find that on the 23d of March, 1693, it was ordered, "No member to take tobacco into the gallery, or to the table, sit ting at committees." But though most of the rules which regu late decorum in the House of Commons are unwritten, every member is, nevertheless, expected to make himself thoroughly ac quainted with them, and every breach of