The British House of Commons.
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THE BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS. BY LAWRENCE IRVVELL. THE Houses of Parliament which occupy the site of a former royal residence, known as the Palace of Westminster, were erected as recently as 1840, from plans de signed by the late Sir Charles Barry. The building, which contains the House of Lords, as well as the "Lower Chamber," forms a parallelogram almost a thousand feet long by about three hundred feet in width, and is sur mounted by four lofty spires, the southwest or Victoria tower being some three hundred and forty-five feet high, and the northwest— the clock tower—measuring three hundred and twenty feet. The clock, known as Big Ben, strikes the hours upon a bell which is said to weigh nine tons. The situation of the edifice—all the world knows it overlooks the river Thames—is in some respects ideal, but the beauty of the structure as seen from Westminster Bridge is marred by the decay of the magnesian limestone, due to the in fluence of the atmosphere. The peculiarity which strikes a stranger upon entering the House of Commons is the small;size of the Chamber. At the time it was built, the people's representatives did not number more than four hundred, but so many new constituences have been created since, that there are now six hundred and seventy members of Parliament for Great Britain and Ireland. In probably every other legislature Cham ber in the world, each representative has a seat assigned to him, with a desk in front of it. In the British House, however, there are no desks, and the only members who are sure of finding seats are ministers and ex-ministers, the occupants respectively of the so-called Treasury bench and the front opposition bench. The result is that on im portant occasions there is something ap
proaching a rush for seats as soon as the doors of the Chamber are opened in the morning. The process by which a seat may be secured is curious. By leaving his hat upon the bench, a member may engage a place for the evening, but it must be his ordi nary working hat, and not a hat brought specially for the purpose of retaining the seat. This question was decided by the Speaker a few years ago when a member brought with him half a dozen hats to mon opolize seats for colleagues who did not visit the House until the ordinary hour of meet ing—four o'clock in the afternoon. Dur ing the influenza epidemic of (I think) 1894, the Speaker went so far as to recognize a card left on the bench as a substitute for a hat in order to enable "honorable gentle men to protect their heads from the draughts in the lobby. There are no pages in England's elective Chamber. Nobody, except a member, is permitted to pass beyond the place called "the bar," just inside the chief entrance to the House, so that when an attendant has papers to deliver he gives them to some member sitting near "the bar," and they are passed from hand to hand until they reach their owner. As in other legislative halls, the legisla tors are forbidden to refer to each other by name. To this rule, it must be admitted, there is one exception. Upon rising to con tinue a debate during the Speaker's occu pancy of the Chair, "honorable gentlemen" must use the formula, "Mr. Speaker, Sir;" but when the House is in what is known as "Committee of the Whole," the member who acts as president, and who, strange to say, sits with the clerks at the table, is addressed, not as "Mr. Chairman" or "Mr. President,"
