July 20. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



125 



terrupts members wlio speak of speeches having \ 

 been published. " This is one of the inconsis- '. 

 tencies," Mr. Ross proceeds, " resulting from the 

 determination of the House not expressly to re- 

 cognise the presence of strangers." Inconsistency 

 there certainly is, — the inconsistency of making 

 publication a breach of privilege, and allowing it 

 to go on daily. 



As strangers may be admitted into the House 

 to hear debates, and not allowed to publish what 

 they hear, so they may be admitted, subject to 

 exclusion at certain times, or when the House 

 chooses. And this is the case. The House, of 

 course, retains the power of excluding them at any 

 moment. They are always made to withdraw 

 before the House goes to a division. This is a 

 matter of practice, founded probably on some 

 supposed reasons of convenience. Again, on any 

 member desiring stranrrers to be excluded, the 

 Speaker desires them to withdraw, without allow- 

 ing any discussion. 



I have only to notice one other observation of 

 Mr. Ross's, which is the following : — ■ 



" When T speak of strangers being admitted, it must 

 not be supposed that this was done by order of the 

 House. No, everything relating to the admission of 

 strangers to, and their accommodation in the Hou?e of 

 Commons, is eflFocted by some mysterious agency, for 

 which no one is directly responsible. l\Ir. Barry has 

 built galleries for strangers in the new house ; but if 

 the matter were made a subject of inquiry, it probably 

 would puzzle him to state under what authority he has 

 acted." 



I do not think there is anything mysterious as 

 regards a<lmission. I am fond of hearing the de- 

 bates, and my parliamentary friends are very kind 

 to me. Sometimes I content myself with an order 

 from a member, which takes me into the hinder 

 seats of the non-reporting strangers' gallery ; 

 sometimes, when I know beforehand of an inter- 

 esting debate, I get one of my friends to put my 

 name on the " Speaker's list," and I then take my 

 seat on one of the two front rows of the strangers' 

 gallery ; sometimes, again, I go down on the 

 cliance, while the House is sitting ; and if I am 

 fortunate enougli to find any one of my friends 

 there, he generally brings me, in a few moments, 

 an order from the Sergeaut-at-arms, which takes 

 me also to the front row of the strangers' gallery. 

 Some benches under the strangers' gallery are re- 

 served for peers, amb.-issadors, and peers' eldest 

 sons. The Speaker and the Sergeant-at-arms give 

 permission generally to foreigners, and sometimes 

 to some otiier persons, to sit in these benciies. I 

 do not know wliich oliicer of the IIf)use of Com- 

 mons superinteniLs tiie admission of re[)orters. 

 Ladies are admitted to the Hiark Hole assigned to 

 tliem, by orders from the Sergeant-at-arms. I 

 have no doubt that the Speaker ami Sergeant-at- 

 arms are responsible to the House for everything 



relating to the admission of strangers ; and with- 

 out taking upon myself to say what is the authority 

 under which Mr. Barry has acted, I have no doubt 

 that, in building galleries for strangers in the new 

 house, he has done what is consistent not only 

 with the long established practice, but, under the 

 new order of 1845, with the theory of the House 

 of Commons. 



As regards the passage quoted by Mr. Jackson 

 from the Edinhurgh Review, the reviewer would 

 probably allow that he had overlooked the new 

 standing order of 1845 ; and Mr. Jackson will 

 perceive that the recognition of the presence of 

 strangers does not legalise the publication of 

 speeches. The supposed difficulty in the way of 

 legalising publication is, that the House of Com- 

 mons would then make itself morally responsible 

 for the publication of any libellous matter in 

 speeches. I do not see the force of this ditliculty. 

 But the expediency of the existing rule is not a 

 proper subject for discussion in your columns. 



CH. 



Wliatever the present practice of the House of 

 Commons with respect to strangers may be, it 

 does not seem probable that it will soon undergo 

 alteration. In the session of 1849 a Select Com- 

 mittee, composed of fifteen members, and including 

 the leading men of all parties, was appointed " to 

 consider the present practice of this House in re- 

 spect of the exclusion of strangers." The follow- 

 ing is the Report of the Committee in extetiso 

 (Pari. Pap., No. 498. Sess. 1849) : — 



" That the existing usage of excluding strangers 

 during a division, and upon the notice by an individual 

 Member that strangers are present, has prevailed from 

 a very early period of parliamentary history ; that 

 the instances in which the power of an individual 

 Member to exclude has been exercised have been very 

 rare : and that it is the unanimous opinion of your 

 committee, that there is no sufficient ground for making 

 any alteration in the existing practice with regard to 

 the adinission or exclusion of strangers." 



This Report confirms the statement of Me. Ross 

 (p. 83., ante), that within his experience of tliirty- 

 one years no change has been made in the present 

 rule of the House upon this matter, which, it would 

 seem, dates very far back. The Speaker was the 

 only witness examined before the Committee, and 

 his evidence is not printed. Akun. 



Morganatic Marriage (Vol. ii., p. 72.). — Ac- 

 cording to M., Diicange has connected this expres- 

 sion witii //(rj/vf/HiT-wZi,- but I have looked in vain 

 for such connection in my edition of the Glossary 

 (Paris, 17;5."}). The truth most probably is, that 

 morganatic, in tiie phrase "matrimonium ad mor- 



