The National Register.
London, England, 1808-05-08 00:00:00

MAY 8.

REVIEW OF POLITICAL DECLAINIEIts,


No. XIX.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

In the thirteenth Number of our Paper we presented out
Readers with a letter from a person of fashion io London to 1113
friend, a 3•oung+gentleman of family, who resides in the countr :
and we made a promise of inserting, from time to time, such of
his epistles on similar subjects as we could procure, vv;tll the
assurance of authenticity. We now give a letter on the Hoed
of Commons.
DEAR R—,

You wish to hear something of the House of Commons : ex-
pecting, doubtless, a great deal of panegyric on a body which
has boasted so many illustrious men, and of which you will
yourself he probably a member before you take your father's
place in the Upper House. I dare say you think that an in-
stitution, on which the interests of the people so materially de-
pend, and which, indeed, is the great distinction that marks the
superiority of the British Constitution over every other. is
conducted in such a manner as to imisress the mind with a feeling
of veneration at once for the majesty of the people, for the
worth of their representatives, and for the wisdom of our ances-
tors who framed such a branch of the Legislature. My dear R.
you are quite wrong if you fancy any such thing. You see, in-
deed, the Speaker looking very grave, and even wise : fur who
would not look wise with a wig at which the frisears of the
time of King Charles the Second would have started in amaze-
ment ? And below you see some clerks, quietly sitting at a
table in front of the Speaker's chair : but other abject of dig-
nity there is none, unless by chance the Master of the Rolls he
at his place, who always sits in his wig and gown. The rest
of the Members amuse themselves as they please, till the very
moment of entering the House, *so that when they appear in
their places, their boots and round hats give an inexpressible
air of graceful negligence and ease to the naturally formal cha-
pel of St. Stephen. They even sit with their hats on their
heads; despising those old-fashioned forms which our ancestors
denominated by the name of good breeding. For as the Mem-
bers of this House for the most part are men who keep the best
company, and as no good company now-a-days would tolerate
what was once called good breeding, many gentlemen, out of
mere compliment to the fashionable women of their acquaint-
ance, have thrown off such formal customs, and introduce the
manners of the ladies *ho lead the ton into the councils of the
men who direct the nation. By an easy transition, the enemir;
of old breeding have become the enemies of old morality: and
unless the House of Commons at largo shall make some rule to
check the innovations of some of its Members, or unless their
Constituents shall laugh them out of their stable jackets, we
shall hope to see modern manners and modern morals at last
understood as well on the benches of the House of Commons, ay
even on Newmarket heath, or at the fives-court for sparring..

The Members employ themselves in different ways according
to their peculiar tastes. Some go up stairs into the long gal-
leries that are put up on each side like those of a church, and
are lulled to sleep by the sonorous soporifics of the vast drisato :
not a few, removed to a c nivenient distance, enjoy all the plh.a-
sures of friendly conversation; and in common with the strangers
who come only as visitors, determine to make themselves happy,
notwithstanding the frequent hints which the Speaker throws
out in many expressive little phrases, such as, Order in the Muse
—Order at the Bar!—Order under the Gallery!—From the in-
attention with which many gentlemen receive these hints, even
while some Cabinet Minister is speaking, I have sometimes been
tempted to conceive, that they had the presumption to fancy
their own conversation as beneficial to the country as the Teri n
of the Right Hun. Geelecoan or Noble Lord who might be


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