The Quaint Side of Parliament.

minutes he occupied in speaking from his seat on the front opposition bench. An exception to the rule that a member must stand uncovered when addressing the House on all other occasions is made in cases of sickness or infirmity. The late Sir Charles Forster, who was member for Walsall, always addressed the House from his seat, in the later years of his Parliamentary life, owing to infirmity, and during the debate on the Home Rule Bill of 1893, in the House of Lords (in which chamber many of these rules of etiquette also apply), the late Marquis of Waterford, who had met with a bad mishap in the hunting field, spoke reclining on a bench and propped up with two air cushions which he had brought with him into the House. Each sitting of the House opens, as I have said, with prayers, at the appointed hour, which is usually three o'clock, except on Wednesdays, when it is twelve o'clock. No business can be commenced except a quorum of forty is present, and members in attend ance at prayers, and entering before a quorum is made up, are compelled by the sergeantat-arms — who stands guard, a stern and un yielding sentinel, at the door — to remain in the chamber until a House is formed. On Wednesday, which is one of " the private members' days " — that is, a day for the discus sion of bills introduced by unofficial members, as distinguished from government business — there is, occasionally, some difficulty and some delay in making a quorum. The time allowed for the purpose does not lapse till four o'clock. It is amusing to watch how, in the interval, a member approaching the chamber from the lobby will cautiously pause at the open portals, and seeing the state of affairs will send an ironical smile of sympathy to an imprisoned colleague, and, shutting his ears to the charming and seductive invitation of the sergeant-at-arms to step inside, will hastily withdraw again. " ' Will you walk into my parlor? ' said the spider to the fly," but it is only the new members that are

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caught in the trap. One Wednesday, a few years ago — it was the first Derby Day for which the House refused to adjourn —'no House was formed; but about thirty con scientious members who were present at prayers were detained in the chamber doing nothing for four hours, while the vast majority of their colleagues were playing truant, and enjoying unrestricted liberty on the breezy and sunlit downs of Epsom. Once a House is made up and business commenced it proceeds uninterruptedly, even although there be only one member with the Speaker present. The Speaker himself can take no notice of the absence of a quorum. His attention must be directed to it. This is done by a member rising in his place and say ing: " Mr. Speaker, I beg to call your attention to the fact that there are not forty members present." That being said, the Speaker must proceed to count the House. He does not, however, simply count the members who are present in the chamber at the moment. He rises and says : " Notice having been taken that there are not forty members present, strangers will withdraw," and then sets going the electric bells, which ring in every room of the vast building a summons to members to return to the House. The members come rushing in from all quarters, and after the lapse of two minutes the Speaker, using as a pointer his black beaver three-cornered hat (which, by the way, he never wears over his huge court wig), proceeds to count the num ber in the chamber. When he arrives at the fortieth member he cries out " Forty" in a loud voice, resumes his seat, and business again proceeds from the point at which it was interrupted by the motion for a count. But if there were not forty present, he would sim ply quit the chair without a word, and the sitting would be at an end. In these days there is not much danger of the absentees running the risk of being made to stand the fire of the severe dis pleasure of the chair. But it was evidently different about the middle of the eighteenth