The Press. — London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

MARCH 21, 1857. no good by trying books—sure to be bad, like Manners' and Nlahon's. Let the littera/purr alone, and let us govern in the State and in society, leading—and fighting when necessary. Again, Lady Beaming, a baronet's young widow, discourses upon the ballet:— Lady Beaming had a theory about that. " It's all cus• tom. It does nct follow that they are immodest because they show their legs. Fine ladies show more of their shoulders and bosoms; and, as a custom, without immo• desty. In the East, the women do not show their faces ; in Europe, the legs are hidden off the stage. The ballet girl may be pure as the icicle that hangs on Dian's temple ; tor the stage has its own rules too. I knew a beautiful girl at Rome who sat as a model to artists, for hours and hours, nude; she had been brought up to it; saw no wrong—telt no shame—and inspired all with respect." Mr. Whitty sometimes displays a grim, and perhaps rather coarse humour—as for in. stance : Once detained at a Rue de Rivoli hotel in Paris--costly, comfortablybedded Windsor—l was reduced to a daily analysis of the coffee room. There also breakfasted and dined there, with equal regularity, a young couple—newly married. The) were Americans. He was of that young planter•from•the•South complexion which you see often at the Trafalgar, Green• wich, eating whitebait, and paying for it out of the product of black men ; a low forehead, a classic nose, shining olive cheeks, cocoanut teeth, and round Greek chin. She was a tiny thing of flush fifteen, olive and ripe, with brown gl.a tening ringlets on a delicious girly head. They fe 1 there —the hungry, timid birds—because they dreaded, no doubt, the hum and stare of the cafes. This coffee•room was solitary of all but myselt ; and I hid myself behind one of those large yellow reprint novels that Paris appears to be principally engaged in manufacturing. Me they never thought of; they regarded the room as inhabited by themselves and the waiter. The waiter was a stern matter•of•fact man, rough with these tender, cooing Yankees, to whom he was incessantly pointing out plats, and from whom he was always taking incoherent orders favourable to the establishment; and, in deference to his middle-aged prejudices, they prattled low, whisperingly as the south wind, over the usual thing. How beaming they were! What dulcet endearing breath—what pretty caresses ! How I used to envy that man ! I hated him. He was so rich, had such youth, had such an appetite, and such a bride. Human felicity at last, I thought, to be noted down. I would rather see it daily than in fact breakfast at the Cardinal and dine at the Trois Freres; and I ate toy bifstek, abominable, and drank my St Jullien, corked, in sytnpathetic • peace for a fortnight in that coffee•room— a room. but for them, simply odorous of the plentiful and palpable British breakfasts of the morning. At last we bowed to one another, smiled, good dayed. Finally, one evening at dinner she rose and left the room without him, after a prolonged and poetic repast. She curtsied prettily in a flouncing, fluttering, brown dress that seemed a con• tinuation of the veil of ringlets, and departed like a vision. The youth, the Apollo, brave and bright, carried his chair Over to me. He winked. " Eaten too much to-day, she has," said he ; and now I'd like to have a liquor and smoke with you, friend. I'd like darnedly to go and sea an out-al:bout Gal in Paris. Shall us?" On that day I resolved never to marry. We are too gross for the institution. The marriages that are made in heaven are fulfilled there. In one part of his work ?Jr. Whitty describes the origination of a London weekly paper, which he calls the Teaser. Some people are ill-natured enough to say that it is intended to be a sketch front life. With that we are not concerned. The passage is sparkling and severe, and certainly very entertaining. Other admirable passages are, the description of a madman's ball—London on the early Sunday morning—a quarrel in a club—and a political meeting at Plunder Priory, the seat of a great Whig duke—the last sublimely impossible. " Friends of Bohemia" is eccentric, extra vagant, and virulent. But when all deduc- Gins ara made wtA have a residuum of real original talent, which ought to be frankly and warmly acknowledged. Parliamentary Precedents. Being Decisions of the Right Hon. Charles Shaw Lefevre, Speaker of the House of Commons. By the Hon. fl Bert Bourke, of the Inner Temple. London: Sweet. Tux rules which regulate " Order" in the House of Commons are one of the most im portant codes of law in the world. They are the result of the experience of an assembly which for three hundred years has swayed the destinies of a free people. Other °odes bear the impress of particular minds. In our equity precedeuts we trace the influences of Hardwioke and Eldon ; in our commercial law we are foreed to recollect the peculiar consti tution. of Lord dausfield's generalising intel lect; and that Coke commented upou Littleton is a great fact familiarised to every English lawyer Jut in the code which goverhe the THE PRESS. House of Commons we feel that practical experience has been the great artificer of the rules by which the functions of the House of Commons are discharged. Without these admirable rules the House of Commons would be either an anarchical or a servile assembly. Bentham was an enemy to many of the legal forms of our juridical system; but it is most remarkable that when the first National Assembly was convulsing France and affright ing Europe, Bentham thought that it would be an act of high utility to get published in France the rules of debate in the British House of Commons. He mas right. It is scarcely conceivable, except by those ac customed to committees and general meet ings, what mischief is done when a chairman or a secretary is not versed in the laws of order which should regulate all discussions. The confusion produced by moving an amendment upon an amendment, and the im possibility of ascertaining the sense of the meeting under such circumstances, has been witnessed by numbers in many places when chairmen unused to the forms of public dis cussion have been selected. In the annals of the Sptakership of the House of Commons, the names of Onslow, Abbot, Manners Sutton, and Shaw Lefevre will always be famous. The first had longest experience (thirty-three years), and had pro digious gravity ; the second did much to improve the procedure of the public business, and his address from the chair had classical brevity and terseness of expression ; the third was a capital specimen of a courtly Speaker, with dignified manners, and suavely attractive deportment ; the fourth has united in himself many of the most favourable points that m:u•ked Abbot and Manners Sutton. After the emphatic tribute paid to Mr. Speaker Lefevre by both sides of the House of Commons, we feel that our words would be superfluous in recording our high estimate of the admirable qualities which marked the discharge of his duties. The late Sir Robert Inglis (who himself possessed no small qualifications for filling the Parliamentary Chair with dignity) thus a poke in 1852: In the last year we had 242 division•, and Ithe Speaker has sat not less than 13001 hours in the discharge of his duties as Speaker, since first be was elected in the year 1839, to that high post of dignity and duty. When I contrast the laiiours of former Speakers, when I hear of only one Speaker filling the chair during the whole reign of George the Second, . . . . I must say that the Right Honourable Gentle man has compressed into the period of his services more labour, more attention, and more suocessful energy, than any one of his predecessors. This tribute we find cited in the volume be fore us, and we could have wished that its clever editor had also quoted the tribute paid not long since by a distil:lL! nishr-d reviewer and political essayist in the Quarterly Review. The high character of the present Speaker gives . this volume its merit, and stamps it with permanent value. Mr. Bourke has dis charged his duties as editor with modesty and efficiency. We think him mistaken in sup posing that members of Parliament only will find it valuable. We recommend it to gentle men at large as a volume on constitutional practice of the highest interest, and it should appear on the chairman's desk in every de bating society. The mistake is often made "out of doors " of moving -an amendment upon an amend ment." A little reflection will show that such a course would puzzle voters as to what was the question or which was the amendment on which they were to say " Yea" or " Nay." We quote a case from this work : Wednesday, May 19th, 1632.(3 Hansard, cui. 761.) An Amendment cannot be moved upon an Amendment. Colonial Bishops Bill. Adjourned debate on question (29 April) that the bill be now read a second time. Sir John Pakington moved." That the House proceed to the other orders of the, day." _ _ Amendment proposed, to leave out from the words " That the," to the end of the question, in order to add the words, " other orders of the day be now read," instead thereof. Mr. Adderley moved the postponement of the debate to that day fortnight. Mr. Speaker.— ' Tt is out of order to move an amend• meat upon an amendment." - - The rule once laid down must be inflexible. Sometimes we could wish for elucidatory notes to some of the precedents in this wall volume. For example : 281 Monday, May 2Pth, 18-18.—(3 Hansard, xcix. 6.) If on the question of an Address to the Crown a Member is ()ace permitted to discuss an extra neous subject, other Members who follow him are not prevented from doing so. Lord John Russell moved an address to the Queen on the death of the Princess Sophia. Sir James Graham proceeded to discuss the question of the conduct of the Attorney General in striking the jury in Mr. Mitchel's trial, upon which Mr. Keogh had asked a question. Mr. firittlit was addressing the House. Mr. Law.-1 rise to order, Sir; there is no question before the House. Mr. Speaker.—" There is the address of condolence " Mr. Bright.—T say, Sir, while the Government have shown the power of the law and their determination— Mr. LAVI.-1 rise to order again, Sir. The Honourable Gentleman is not speaking to the question— Mr. Speaker.—" Members who have preceded the Honourable Gentleman hue spoken upon the subject he is referring to." Mr. Bright proceeded. Mr. E. B. Roche, Mr. Keogh, dm. followed. Motion agreed to nem. con. This rule clearly applies only to the case of speaking on an address to the Crown, and the exception should be marked, otherwise the power of stopping an irregular discussion would be taken out of the Speaker's hands The general " Rules and Orders " of the House of Commons are added to this volume of precedents, and Mr. Bourke has supplied a special index to them, as well as giving a general index to the whole volume. Some of those rules are of prodigious constitutional importance. For example, rule 16 rues thus : No member may use her Majesty's name irreverently in debate, nor for the purpose of influencing the House in its deliberations. If the Sovereign's name were allowed to be used in debate, two great evils would be in curred. One class of members might be me naced with the displeasure of the Court, and there would be serious danger of constant dis putes as to what were the real personal feel ings of the Crown on particular suijeets. A volume ofcurious Parliamentary anecdotes might be compiled, illustrating the application of these rules. No 174 runs thus By order, 22nd January, 103, to the end t hat all the debates in this House should be grave and orderly, as becomes so gre-a an assembly, and that all interruptions should be prevented, no member of this House is to pre sume to make any noise or disturbance whilst any member is orderly debating, or whilst any Lill, order, or other matter is being read or opened ; and in case of such noise or disturbance, Mr. Speaker is to call upon the member, by name, making such disturbance ; and every such person will incur the displeasure and censure of the House. The threat of calling by names has often been used, but we do net recollect an instance of its having been exercised. Speaker Onslow was fond of employing it for the sake of warn ing, and was once asked " what would be the " consequence, if names were called ? " " Heaven only knows, sir," replied Mr. Speaker, with his most imposing air. The precedents quoted in extols() give this volume considerable value. We shall be sur prised it' it does not soon meet with a new edition, and we advise its clever editor to and a few notes. From the fact of its publication being sanctioned by Speaker Lefevre, it will always be an interesting memorial of his dis tinguished rule in the chair of " the first, the " most ancient, and the noblest temple of " Freedom in the world." Three Year. in California. By J. D. Borth- wick. London : Blackwoods. I, there never had been a book published on California, and on the strange lite there, we can readily imagine how much success would have been accorded to this volume. If pub lished at a lucky moment it might have com manded vast success. Even now the work is so picturesque and variously readable, that as a light book on California it is worthy of notice by those who read for pleasure. But it wants novelty of subject, and, still more, it is defective in weight of matter. Its descrip tions are animated, but its decisions carry no authority; and the writer would hare done better if he had collected more detailed information. He takes us to a panorama, and moves round a aeries of exciting pictures ; but we have had them before, though we admit the merit of the present exhibitor, who corrobo- rates our previous opinions about the Cab•