The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-26 00:00:00

The New Parliament.

Nearly seven years having elapsed since a new
Parliament was convened in the Palace of West-
minster, ordinary men may be excused for not re-
membering precisely the mode of procedure on such
occasions before the new house settles down into
working order, interesting though it always is at
the time, and perhaps never more so than it will
probably be on the forthcoming ceremony. One has
only vague recollections of the tedious process,
lasting sometimes through a whole week, day after
day, of swearing in the members in batches at
the table, and of the house eventually proceed-
ing to business ; but old members will not have for-
gotten the formalities which invariably precede this
ceremony, and it may be a service to new ones to
describe them. On the meeting of the last new Par-
liament, in the summer of 1859, the process of swear-
ing occupied four clear days, the House sitting from
2 o'clock till 4 each day, and part of a fifth. The
House assembled for the first time on Tuesday, the
31st of May, and the sitting was chiefly occupied
in the election of a Speaker. It met again on Wed-
nesday, June 1, and so on from day to day, Satur-
day excepted, for the purpose of swearing members,
and ultimately proceeded to business on Tuesday,
the 7th of June, when the Queen opened Parliament
in person. On that day the House met at 1 o'clock
as usual, and members continued to take the oaths
down to the very moment of their being summoned
to attend her Majesty in the House of Lords. At
the opening of the previous Parliament, which took
place on the 30th of April, 1857, five whole days and
part of a sixth were spent in administering the oaths
to members, exclusive of that en which the Speaker
was elected, the House finally entering on the busi-
ness before it on Thursday, the 7th of May, when
Parliament was opened by Commission.
Assuming the precedents of former Parliaments to
be followed, when the new House first meets on
Thursday, the Ist of February, the members will be
first summoned to the bar of the House of Lords to
hear the Commission read. On presenting themselves
there they will hear from the lips of the Lord Chancel-
lor a statement to the effect that as soon as the mem-
bers of both Houses shall have been sworn, the causes
of Parliament being called together will be declared
to them, and that they should first of all repair to
their own Chamber, and there proceed to their ap-
pointment of some proper person to be their Speaker.
The Commons will then withdraw for that purpose,
and the House of Lords will be adjourned during
pleasure, but only to unrobe. On that House having
resumed, the Lord Chancellor will first take and
subscribe the oath singly, at the table. According
to Mr. Erskine May, the great authority in these
matters, the Clerk of the Crown then delivers a cer-
tificate of the return of the 16 representative Peers
of Scotland, and Garter King of Arms the roll of
the Lords Temporal ; after which the Lords who are
present take and subscribe the oaths required by
law. A Peer of the Blood Royal takes the oath
singly, like the Lord Chancellor. At this time also
Peers are introduced who have received writs of
summons, or who have been newly created by letters
patent, and they present their writs orpatents to the
Lord Chancellor, kneeling on one knee. They
.are
introduced in their robes, between two other Peers
of their own dignity, also in their robes, and are
preceded 14y the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod,
by Garter King of Arms, and by the Earl Marshal
and Lord Chamberlain, though it is not absolutely
necessary that the last two officers should be pre-
sent. Being thus introduced, Peers are conducted
to their seats according to their dignity. A Bishop
is introduced by two other Bishops and conducted
to his seat among the Spiritual Lords, but without
the formalities observed in the case of the Temporal
Peers. The Representative Bishops of Ireland are
not introduced by other Bishops, but take the
oaths, subscribe the roll, and proceed to their seats
without any particular ceremony.
While these stately formalities are being observed
in the Upper House, the members of the Lower
House will be engaged in electing their Speaker—a
ceremony which in some respects is conducted after
a somewhat quaint fashion. For example, when a
member rises to nominate a Speaker,'the Clerk at
the Table, to whom he has to address himself by
name, is expected to " stand up, point to him, and
then sit down." This formality was solemnly
ob-
served by Sir Denis Le Merchant, the Clerk, when
in April, 1857, Lord Harry Vane rose in his place
to propose Mr. Denison to be Speaker, and again
in May, 1859, when Colonel Wilson Patten did the
like. The motion having been seconded, if
no other member than one be proposed as Speaker,
the member so nominated is called by the House to
the chair without any question being put. He
then stands up in his place, and, expressing his sense
of the honour intended to be conferred upon him,
submits himself to the House. The House a second
time unanimously calls him to the chair, upon which
his proposer and seconder " take him out of his
place" and conduct him to the chair. Arrived
there, " he stands on the upper step," and express-
ing his sense of the high honour the House has been
pleased to confer upon him, takes his seat. The
Mace, which up to this time has been under the
table, is then laid upon the table, where it always
remains during the sitting of the House, with the
Speaker in the chair. The Speaker elect is then
congratulated by some leading member, and the
House adjourns. In 1859 both Lord Palmerston
and the then Chancellor of the Exchequer offered
their congratulations to the Speaker elect. Lord
Palmerston had done the same in 1857 with Mr.
Walpole, the latter speaking in the unintentional
absence of Mr. Disraeli, arising from a misunder-
standing as to the hour of meeting of the House.
When the House assembles on the day following the
election, the Speaker, on the message of " Black
Rod," and accompanied by the members in attend-
ance, presents himself at the Bar of the House of
Lords and "submits himself, with all humility, to
her Majesty's gracious approbation." On return-
ing from the Lords, the Speaker reports to the
House his approval by the Sovereign, and puts
them iu mind that their first duty is to take and
subscribe the oaths required by law. Then he him-
self first, alone, " standing upon the upper step of
the chair," takes and subscribes the oath accord-
ingly, the other members present following. The
manner of taking the oaths is prescribed by the
statutes, 30th of Charles 11., statute 2 ; the 13th of
William 111., cap. 6, and the Ist of George 1.,
statute 2, cap. 13.. It is there enacted that " no
member of the House of Peers shall vote or make
his proxy in the House of Peers, or sit there