The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-19 00:00:00

SKETCHES IN PARLIAMENT.

FRIDAY.
The fulness of the house, and ilio'lmPO-riance of tho
occasion are no measure of the interest of a debate. A
very trivial matter will often give rise to a lively scerie.
On the other hand a very grave subject will sometimes
lead to a very dull and dreary evening. Yesterday after'
noon the House of Commons was very full at catechising
time. Not only the floor of the house but the members'
gallery also was filled. The Peers' gallery had more
occupants than I have seen all the session. I noticed Lold
Salisbury, the Duke of Marlborough, the Marquis a
Clanricarde, the Earl of Lucan, Lord Houghton, Lord
Monson, and over thirty others. But though there
was every sign of a grand field night, the proceedings
were very dull. This was greatly owing to the list of
qaestions, which was unusually uninviting. There was,
in fact, ne, relief to the wearisome monotony of
Tiestion and answer until Mr. Whalley got up. lie bad
to ask a question respecting the Red River Settlement.
It did not seem possible that even the • member for
Peterborough would be able to reach Rome
by that road. But trust Mr, Whalley. In
the course of a minute he had travelled from
far Western America to the capital of Italy (according to
Garibaldi), and at the sound of the well-known words,
"Romish clergy," there was a joyful shout of "Yale,
yah !" from lion. members glad to welcome their old friend.
This outburst of vivacity soon died away, and we returned
to our phi dulness until Mr. Gladstone put the question
that the orderi of the day be suspended, in order that the
Peace Preservation (Ireland) Bill might be introduced.
Mr. G. H. Moore, .the advocate of O'Donovan Rossa,
and who, for some unintelligible reason, sits on
the Conservative benches, was not prepared to
assent to that proposition. He had something to say
on behalf of his constituents, the inmates of sundry of
her Majesty's gaols, and in an excited " stand-and-
deliver " style he put a series of questions to the First
Minister of the Crown. Mr. Gladstone, more suo, divided
his reply under three heads. He reiterated his assertion
that the hon. Fenians were very comfortable on the
whole, but added that as the assertion of the Government
did not seem to satisfy the friends of those gentlemen,
he was prepared to grant an inquiry into
their condition. `He admitted that two Fenian prisoners
had become insane, and that a third was of unsound pled,
but he was not pripared to admit that insanity was a
ground for release. •:-For insane convicts there was the
Broadmoor Asylum. "The House cheered the sentiment,
and I dare -say it is all right; only I am not quite sure that
if a similar answer had -been given a dozen years ago by
the Neapolitan Government hon. members would have
applauded quite as lustily. Nor am I sure that Mr.
Gladstone would not have been the first, and the most elo-
quently vehement to denounce the cruelty of the Govern-
` meat. Mr. Gladstone's third " head " was an unconditional
refusal to extend last year's amnesty to the Fenians still
in prison. Amid loud "hear, hears," he referred to tiro
condition of Ireland, and to the bill which was to be in-
troduced that evening as all-sufficient reasons for 11(A
acceding to Mr. Moore's request.
----Then there was a pause and a general hush ; the Speaker
put the question that the orderS of the day be postponed,
and lip rose Mr. Chichester Fortescue to address the
House.77lt'was in its gravel and most subdued mood; yet
soddenly there rang out great burst of laughter, loud,
uproarious, universal. What had happened? Well, the
Chief Secretary for Ireband, rising with a soleinnity
worthy of the occasion, in his very first sentence tumbled
headlong. into the depths of unfathomable bathos. If°
said that he had to propose, with the greatest regret but
without the smallest.sesitation, a bill for the protection of
life, and, above all, of property, in Ireland. This anti-
climax was irresistibly ludicrous. Liberals no less than
ConserVatives, Irishmen as well as Englishmen, roared
vocitusly, and it Was not for a time that must have
seen 4
,c 1 ages to the right hon. blunderer that he was able

to explain that he had macic a mistake. Fortunately for Mr•

Chichester Fortescue, he is no orator, or he would have lost
his presence of mind, and have hashed his exordium and
peroration together, so that his finest passages would havo
bien irretrievably spoilt. But he makes no pretension to
eloquence. . He is, moreover, hesitating and monotonous,
and it must be confessed that listening to his 97 minutes'
-speech was a trial of patience. If I found it so, sleeping
between whiles the sleep of the innocent, what must the
• Irish members have thoughtit ? It was " St. Patrick's day
in the morning," or evening rather; and that evening had
been fixed for a great banquet of Irishmen at Willis's
Rooms. Judr,e, therefore, of the feelings of Hibernian
M.P.'s divided by their desire to make a speech, and their
wish to partake in the flow of soul going on hard by St.
Jamba's Square, as they watched the minute-hand make a
complete revolution of the clock; and then half a revolu-
tion, and the hour-hand ',pass the figure seven (the
dinner hour) before the Chief Secretary for
Ireland sat down. There was a loud buzz
of conversation when he had detailed all the
measures which he proposed to introduce, and the Speaker
was obliged to call out " order," so that the right
hon. gentleman's peroration, such as it was, might be
heard.

So soon as he had finished, Peers from the gallery above,
and Commoners from.the floor below rushed out to dine,

and it was a very thin House which Sir Frederick Hey"-
gate addressed. He made (for him), a wonderfully
short speech, in the main supporting the Government.
Then Dr. Brady got up, and there seemed every
prospect of a regular debate. Sir George Grey deprecated
it at that early stage of the bill,—and so did Colonel Patton
on the Opposition side of the House. But Irish members
were not to be put down. Mr. Chichester Fortescue had
kept them from their dinner, and it was but fair that they
should keep him from his. So Sir Patrick O'Brien, ono
of last week's "Eleven against all England, Scotland, and
Ireland," had his say, and that say was a pretty strong
denunciation of Irish magistrates, and of the Lord*
Lieutenants of Counties for their favouritism in appointing
an undue majority of Protestants. Two M.P.'s arose
together, and stood for some time repeating " Mr.
Speaker," " Mr. Speaker" one against the other, as
though they had been laying a bet. The House
called " Callan," but the Speaker called " Charley," and
the gentleman who considers himself a second Attila,
charged to execute divine vengeance upon Mr. Gladstone,
at last attained the object for which he has been rising up
early and late taking rest, and eating the bread of careful-
ness all the session. That is to say, the hon. and learned
gentleman, instead of going away to dinner like other
members, has contented himself with a sandwich,
being loath to leave the House even during
feeding time, lest he should lose the opportunity of
making the speech that he had been preparing all the
session—not to ea y all the long vacation. I confess I
have rather a sneaking affection for Mr. Charley. He is
a very different man from Mr. Newdegate, for instance.
The North Warwickshire country squire talks as if he were
laying hon. members out for their coffins, and the effect
is depressing. But the Irish barrister who sits
for Salford is lively and fluent enough, and you really
can't help listening to him. He has so many points,
all ludicrously blunt, no doubt, but still they are points;
and he is so bold in his impeachment of Mr. Gladstone for
high treason and such like little offences; and he is so
gloriously illogical, so deliciously absurd, that you and the
few hon. members who remain find yourselves listening
with amused contempt, and an occasional "Yah, 3ro,h" in*
voluntarily escaping from yon, Mr. Charley's chief point on
Thursday night was this. The Tory party had been
accused of penal legislation in Ireland—was not this bill a
piece of penal legislation? Of course it is most sapient of
Irish barristers; only there is some little difference between
punishing Irishmen because they are Boman Catholics,
and punishing them because they are murderers, is there
not? We have "penal legislation" in England, I fancy,
for the latter class. But it is not fair to argue with Mr,
Charley. lie is not a logician, he is a poet. With
true irate fervour he denounced Mr. Gallstone for
havkng diSestablished. the Irish OhnrAh, and defttel that
sle had torn the fairest jewel in the Crown from its sfteket,
Phatl thrown it to Fenian swine, and they had turned again,
and were rending somebody,l am not sure who. Moreover I
am ashamed to say that this highly imaginstiye passage
instead, of thrilling the gouse made hen, membera
laugh.
To our surprise, no sooner had our poetic barrister sat
down than up rose Mr. Gladstone. Was the Premier
going to answer Mr. Charley ? /Phis was surely a ease of
an elephant picking up a pin, of a steam-hammer cracking
a nut. Nevertheless, in his best style of banter, and with
the utmost courtesy, Mr. Gladstone replied to his Attila ;
and having sufficiently chaffed him, went on to anawev
some of the objections which had been taken by less poetic ani,
more practical men. The Premier, too, indulged in a simile.
Deprecating resort to the Suspension of the Habeas Oorpus
Act, he said that such a measure was like resorting to,
alcoholic stimulants ; it led to a pleasant glow of satisfac-,
tion at the time, but it laid the seeds of lasting diseas.i.
He deprecated a discussion on that stage of the bill, and
sat down after a quarter of an hour's speech, delivered, bi
a very thin hduse. But the Irish members would not take
the hint. If they could not honour their saint by
drinking his health they would do so by show-
ing up the wrongs his adopted country, so
young Mr. Callan declaredof that the 1 bill
" M M'C rptclopec was "an abrogation of all law; a y Downing
followed up Sir Patrick O'Brien's remarks about the party
spirit shown in appointing magistrates ; and Sir John
Gray, as a newspaper proprietor, denounced the proposed
measures against the Press. The Solicitor-General for
Ireland was put up to answer the Irish phalanx below
the gangway. Turning his hack upon the "Bpeolcer,
and supporting his portly frame against the tab!e,
he delivered himself of a short speech, but uttered with
such extraordinary rapidity that I will back Mr. Dowse
against all the world for gettir', out the greatest number
of words in the shortest time. It was a very good speech
moreover, and seemed to satisfy Sir John Gray and his
friends ; for immediately it was over the bill was read
a first time, and the Speaker retired - for
hig chop. Itove fortmAte than he your cor-
respondent did not feel himself bOund to veturn after:
wards or to listen to the naval M.P.'s dis-Cus§ing the
capacities of octogenarian Admirals to command our f1e5.443.
it'is an important question no doubt,lut then Lord Henry
Lenuoig is not quite the man that one willingly hears Trigo4.
049 has tree Choi%