The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-23 00:00:00

SKETCHES IN PARLIAMENT.

FRIDAY.
M.P.'s were in their most inquisitive mood last night,
and though not a single question was put from the front
Opposition bench, there was a list of nearly thirty down
on the notice paper, and beside these there were numerous
other questions of which no official intimation had been
given before hand. The interrogatories were very
various, and required nearly the whole phalanx
of the Ministry to answer them. So the
Treasury Bench was something more than full; and, con-
sidering that the thermometer was high up in the
eighties, it is a wonder that ministers did not all dissolve
away under the combined influences of over close prox-
imity and the raging Dogstar. Of all the occupants of
the Treasury Bench none acquit themselves so well as
Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Lefevre. Both of them know
exactly what answer to give and how to give
it in the fewest possible words. Mr. Gladstone
takes five words to say what one would have said better.
Mr. Bruce always thinks it necessary to begin with " Mr.
Speaker." Mr. Forster is just a little verbose, though
quite a Laconian compared with his chief. Mr. Ayrton
always amuses the House by his egotism when he does
not irritate it by his insolence. But both the Secretary
for War and the Secretary to the Board of Trade have the
art of conveying the largest possible amount of informa-
tion in the briefest possible narrative. Last night Mr.
Cardwell was up again and again, having question after
question put to him, and answering all with mingled con-
ciseness and suavity, most delightful to witness. Mr. Glad-
stone,however,can sometimes be brief, not to say curt, and he
shewed his ability in this way to good effect yesterday.
Mr. Fawcett had asked when Mr. Grant Duff meant to
make his Indian financial statement, and the Under-
Secretary for India had replied amid a storm of "Noes "
and "Ohs," that if the House would not object to a
morning sitting on Saturday he would deliver
his budget then; when the Professor again
got up, and declared that that course would be
an insult to the hundreds of millions in India, and that if
the Prime Minister insisted upon taking it, he, Mr. Faw-
cett (nothing loth, you may be sure, to oppose Mr. Glad-
stone) would move to-day that the House on its rising
adjourn till Monday. Thereupon the Prime Minister got
up, and said, amid approving laughter, "if the hon. mem-
ber makes that motion, I certainly shall not oppose it."
But the questions which excited most interest, and in-
deed excitement, were those relating to the war. Mr.
Horsman was the first to start that topic. Rising from
his accustomed seat, the first on the front bench below the
gangway, he gave it to be understood that he was going
to preface his inquiries with a statement. This announce-
ment called forth very stormy disapprobation. Strange
to say it was his own familiar friends, the Irreconcilables,
who were loudest in shouting " Order," and at last he
turned round full upon them, and with (so far as I could
hear through the tumult) a sneer at their inexperience,
he told them that he knew very much better than they
when he was in order. The noise continued almost una-
bated throughout Mr. Horsman's lengthy remarks, yet it
was the sigh of the zephyr compared with the uproar that
arose when Mr. Alfred Seymour, interposing
between the House and the eagerly expected an-
swer from Mr. Gladstone, put his question about the
supposed secret Treaty between France and Denmark. Mr.
Gladstone answered both questions at once, and
there rose up a mighty shout of applause when he said
that though the member for Liskeard had given him (Mr
Gladstone) private notice of the questions he meant to
put, he had not given notice of the preface. I confess I
was fairly puzzled by the temper of M.P.'s yesterday.
The determination not to hear any expression of
opinion with regard to the origin of the war or the
deserts of the combatants was so marked and general
that there could be no mistaking it. At the same
time such a love of reticence is very rare. It was
manifestel again when Sir Henry Bulwer, almost in-
audibly, asked a question respecting the neutrality of
Luxemburg, prefacing it with some general remarks. Mr.
Ryland's question respecting Mr. Layard's alleged remiss-
ness in not acquainting his government with the candida-
ture of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern before the diffi-
culty arose, received an answer from Mr.Otway, which did
not seem to satisfy members. It appeared that the candi-
dature had been a common topic of conversation in Madrid
ever since the early part of May ; but it does not seem as
if our Minister had called the attention of the British
Foreign-office to the matter in such a way as to shew that
he appreciated its gravity. There were many other ques-
tions about the war, such as Mr. Gourley's, which the
Premier answered at considerable length. But this was not
the only topic. Mr. Fawcett gave notice that he meant
fighting with respect to the Enclosure of Waste Lands
Bill, in order to keep the open spaces near the metropolis
from being built over. It was amid loud cheers from his
Dissenting friends that Mr. Candlish gave notice of his
intention to oppose the second reading of the Irish Glebe
Lands Bill, a measure which, for some reason, has
greatly aroused the wrath of the Nonconformist, and the
party represented by that organ. Mr. Peter Taylor made
the House very merry by the notice of his intention
to bring in a bill to repeal the Game Laws, and Mr.
Forster described, amid general approbation, the hearty
manner in which cattle-passengers by railway trains ap-
preciated Miss Burdett Coutts s kind thought for them in
obtaining water for them on their journey. It is satisfac-
tory to know that the cattle dealers, who at first opposed
the " new-fangled " notion, have already discovered
that it is to their advantage as much as to that of their
stock.

At last, somewhere about twenty minutes past five, we
had reached the end of our huge list of questions, and we
were settling down the finishing debate on the Edu-
cation Bill, when up rose Mr. Henley and remarked to
the Speaker, " there are strangers in those galleries and
in the gallery behind you." What, exclude the public
and the press from a debate on the Education Bill ! Even
so, and out we all thronged, some of us I
fancy not very much lamenting our rejection
at Mr. Henley's hands. I need hardly say that his object
was to bring into ridicule the present system of excluding
strangers and the reporters if a single member calls the
attention of the Speaker to them. He could not have
chosen a better occasion than a debate on the Education
Bill, and I am inclined to think that, thanks originally
to Mr. Craufurd, the days of the system under which
any squeamish legislator can suppress the Fourth Estate
pro tem are numbered. On returning to the House, half
an hour later, the reporters were cheered by hon. mem-
bers. Then the Education Bill proceeded, and the com-
mittee finished its labours amid a joyous shout of relief,
mingled with cheers, as Mr. `Forster walked out of the
House with his scarlet despatch-box, of which he has
made such good use for the last two months.