KANDOM RVXOLLECriONS OF THE HOUSE OF LOUDS. 365 



"The scenes of confusion so common in the other House, are of very rare 

 occurrence in the Lords. In the latter place one's ears are never assailed by 

 the zoological sounds so frequently to be heard in the Lower House. The 

 art of cock-crowing has yet to be learned by the Peers ; nor have any of their 

 Lordships yet afforded evidence of possessing the enviable acquirement of 

 braying like a certain long-eared animal, yelping like a dog, or mewing like 

 the feline creation. You hear no sounds in the Upper House resembling 

 those emitted by a Scotch bagpipe or an Italian hand-organ. There are no 

 ventriloquists there : if you wish to see exhibitions, and hear sounds of this 

 description, you must descend to the Lower House, where you cannot fail to 

 form a very exalted opinion of the talents of the principal performers. 



" In the Lords, the triumphant party never even cheer, in the usual accepta- 

 tion of the term, however great the victory they have achieved over their oppo- 

 nents. The announcement of the result of every division is heard in unbroken 

 silence. In the course of the debates — however hgh party feeling may run 

 on each side of the question — you never witness any other demonstration of 

 that feeling than in an occasional ' Hear, hear !' Or it may be, your ears 

 are greeted with cries of ' Order, order ! ' from the opposite side, when any 

 member is transgressing, or is supposed to be transgressing, the rules of the 

 House, either as regards the respect due to some Peer individually, or to the 

 House in its collective capacity. You are struck with the gravity which 

 usually characterises the proceedings in the Upper House. The contrast 

 will appear particularly striking if you have been in the other House in some 

 of its more noisy and uproarious moods. The gravity, indeed, of the pro- 

 ceedings in the Lords, often verges on dulness : still you cannot fail to be 

 struck with the superior talents and business habits of their Lordships. 



" There is one thing which goes far to account for the superior gravity 

 and order which characterise the proceedings of the hereditary branch of the 

 legislature, apart from the influence which their Lordships' own notions of 

 dignity have in producing those effects. I allude to the circumstance of the 

 disparity in the number of members in each House. Though the number of 

 members in the House of Lords is only about a third less than the number 

 of members of the other House, the attendance on important occasions in the 

 latter place, is usually nearly three times as great as that in the Lords. The 

 system of voting by proxy in the Upper House, while no such system exists 

 in the Lower, accounts for this. It is unnecessary to add, that whenever bu- 

 siness is transacted, or any question is discussed, either by large or small 

 assemblages, there must of necessity be much more order and regularity of 

 proceeding in the latter than in the former case. 



" You will never on any occasion, from the commencement to the close of 

 a session, observe any of the Peers lying horizontally on the seats, — which is 

 so general a practice in the other House. They have too high a sense of 

 their own dignity for that. Neither do you, with two exceptions, ever see 

 any of them somnolent. The exceptions I refer to are a Ministerial Duke 

 and a member of the Right Rev. Bench of Bishops. His Grace has not been 

 very regular in his attendance of late : formerly he was exemplary in his legi- 

 slative conduct, in so far as his presence and his votes were concerned ; but 

 he never heard a word of the debates. No matter how important the ques- 

 tion, or who were the speakers, — there he sat firmly locked in the arms of 

 Morpheus, with his head half buried in his breast. He always sat, as Mil- 

 ton would have said, " apart by himself." What is worthy of observation is, 

 that he was most regular in his attendance when there was no subject of im- 

 portance before the House ; and when, conseciuently, the benches were com- 

 paratively empty. If there was one bench on his side of the House which 

 was unoccupied, on it he was sure to scat himself. The Right Rev. Prelate 

 to whom 1 refer, has not quite so strong a disposition to somnolency : he 

 only addresses himself to sleep occasionally during the proceedings ; but when 

 he docs 80, there is no mistake about the matter. Soundly and well does he 



