London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
BEGINNING BUSINESS.
As each member enters, he uncovers and bows to the Speaker before taking his place, and the obeisance is performed not in a perfunctory manner, but as if the representative really respected the recipient of | |
52 | his salutation. Silk hats are the rule, and wide-awakes the exception. Frock coats, cut-aways, sacks and gaiters are the sartorial characteristics of the chosen of the people. The Serjeant-at-Arms (occasionally relieved by his assistant) sits to the right of and in the rear of the bar of the House, facing the Speaker. He is garbed after the fashion of the eighteenth century in sombre black cloth, with a white scabbard, sword and steel hilt resting beside him. Sometimes a member who is in entering the House converses with this imposing official, and learns from him the latest parliamentary news. And now, all being in readiness, the most showy work of the sitting commences in real earnest. The ex-Ministers, sitting on the first bench to the left of the Speaker's chair, attack the right hon. gentlemen opposite. The subjects of the caricaturists spar and fence, using now the rapier and now the bludgeon. A is followed by a roar of from the one side or the other. The Speaker rests back in his chair, with works of reference and stationery on either side of him, and looks steadily at the clock. The first commoner is ready to interpose when necessary, but for the moment has nothing better to do than to gaze at the green baize board that shields him from the too powerful glare flashing from the sunlight. The debate is carried on with more or less vigour until about |
53 | eight, when there is an adjournment for some half-hour for refreshment. Before this moment arrives the sunshine had faded from the stained glass windows, with their mottoes and devices, and the shaded light of electricity has poured down from the ceiling. |
