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and talents have secured themselves the admiration and esteem of their countrymen. (Many it is true pursue a very different course of life and conduct from these,) still virtuous or vicious, talented or half witted, they as noblemen have a right to vote upon all parliamentary questions, and as they are not obliged to be present when they vote, but are allowed to vote by proxy as it is called, that is by allowing some other peer to hold their written authority to vote, it is really possible that a man might be deprived of his senses, be a madman, be in the daily commission of the most offensive crime and yet have his vote every day recorded as a peer of parliament.

Is there then no bright side to this picture? Yes, the House of Lords composed as it is, forms a good safeguard, and is most admirably calculated to uphold the national honour in the strict principle of justice. Times might occur when the people, who return the members of the house of commons, might require such sudden changes in the mode of carrying on the Government, such alterations in taxation, or such modes of electing parliaments, as would be unwise and unsafe as well as dishonest to grant ; and yet the people might so order the members of the House of Commons, that they would be compelled to carry the measure; then the House of Lords, who are not answerable to any one for their conduct, would refuse to comply, and thus

would check the measure until persons had time to think coolly upon the business. There is however another check upon the House of Lords and Commons, because no measure that is passed by the Lords and Commons, can be brought into operation without the royal assent being obtained for it.

Several noblemen have been authors. Lord Byron was a famous poet; Lord Holland, Lord John Russell, Lord Morpeth, Lord Mahon, Lord King, and Lord Mulgrave, are well-known as writers, and many others, no doubt, whom we, of course, have not heard of.

On the 25th of February, 1841, accompanied by our kind friend, Thomas Baldock, Esq., who procured for us admission, we paid a visit to the House of Commons, and were allowed to sit in the body of the house, under the Strangers' Gallery, and were separated from the members only by a slight rod of iron. We had previously paid a visit to the House of Commons, through the kindness of our friend, Sir Charles Forbes, but as we then had nobody with us to tell us the names of the members, our first visit lost much of its interest.

This night was a very important night, as it was to be a trial of strength between the Liberals and the Conservatives; and out of six hundred and fifty-eight members, five hundred and ninetyseven were that night present. The question

under discussion was a Bill introduced by Lord Morpeth, a member of the Whig administration, relative to Irish Parliamentary Voters. A Bill of the same name, introduced by Lord Stanley, now a Conservative, but who had been, a short time since, a minister of the Whig government, was so different in some of its clauses, that it appeared all the Conservatives had agreed to vote against the second reading of this Bill, and of course all the Ministerialists were gathered together to vote for it; and almost all the sixty-one members who were not present to vote this evening had, what is called, paired off: that is, a Conservative who wished to be away, agreed with a Liberal who also wished to be away, that neither of them would vote, and this neutralizing of each other's votes is called pairing off. We were admitted into the body of the house somewhere about six o'clock on Thursday evening, and there we sat until half-past two on Friday morning, about eight hours and a half. Shortly after we entered the house an influential gentleman among the Conservatives told our friend that the Ministers would have a majority of six, and about eight o'clock he said another ministerial member had posted home from Vienna, and that the majority of votes would most probably be seven; and to prove how accurately he made his calculation, the Ministers had a majority of five; one of the persons who was expected to vote with the Ministerialists voted with the Opposition, and

thus accounted for the variation. The gentleman in question is sometimes called the whipper-in of the Conservatives, that is to say, he urges all to vote, knows where every member is, and if he intends to be in the house or not. This must be a troublesome office.

The present House of Commons is a temporary affair only. The former place where they met was destroyed by fire a few years since; and a magnificent erection for the Houses of Lords and Commons is now building close to the Westminster Hall, and very near to the present building. The Speaker, who is one of the members, is the chairman; he is seated in a raised chair near the extremity of the large room, and where he can see all the members. On his right hand, on seats raised one above the other, the ministers of the day and their friends sit; the most influential on the upper front seat, called the treasury benches, nearest to the Speaker. The opposition members sit on the left hand of the Speaker, and are arranged according to their importance to their party, similar to their opponents opposite. The Speaker is much disfigured by wearing an immense wig of whitish hair and a black gown, and, seated at a table before him, are three persons similarly attired in wigs and gowns, who are not members, but are Clerks of the House, and keep the records. And upon the table is laid a beautiful silver gilt ornament, three or four feet long, called the mace. When the house

is in what is called Committee of the House, Mr. Bernal, member for Rochester, sits at the table, and the Speaker does not sit in the chair; but Mr. Bernal, who is called Chairman of the Committees, acts then exactly as if he was the Speaker. In a raised chair, at the opposite end to the Speaker, is seated Sir William Gossett, the serjeant-at-arms, who is to preserve order below the bar, and to take into custody any member, or other person, upon the command of the Speaker, who may do anything contrary to the usages of Parliament; when he wishes to withdraw for a short time, John Clement, Esq., deputy serjeantat arms, takes his seat. When we entered the house Mr. Gisborne was addressing the house from the ministerial side, and there were not then perhaps one hundred members in the house, and then Mr. Cholmondeley answered from the opposition; Mr. M. J. O'Connell replied to him, and Mr. Tennent opposed the second reading, and Mr. W. Roche spoke in favour of it. This was all what soldiers would call light skirmishing; and now what they call the big guns began to go off. Mr. Shaw, the Recorder of Dublin, from the opposition benches, in a very lengthy but good speech, spoke against the Bill, and this called up the great Irish agitator, Mr. Daniel O'Connell. He spoke upwards of two hours, addressed the house in most energetic terms, imploring the members, for the safety and welfare of Eng

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