The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-12 00:00:00

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raon the House of Lords, with the Lord Chancellor
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at their head, to attend at the bar of our house, to
hear her Majesty's gracious Speech.

PRICE 4d.
STAMPED 5d

But the truth is that neither house is, in point of
size, adapted for the ceremony which took place on
TueSday, and I cannot help thinking that on the
opening, at all events, of a new Parliament her
Majesty might rc-;eive both houses and such other
persons who might be privileged to attend in that
noble building which we have sa,erified so much to
preserve—Westminster Abbey.

The " Ugly Rush" to the Bar.

Mr. Davenport Bromley, the member for North
Warwickshire, under his well-known initials of
W. D. 8., has written recently as follows
IJust extricated from the mass of struggling
humanity into which her Majesty's faithful Com-
mons resolves itself on the occasion of the delivery
of the Queen's Speech, having partially recomposed
my physical and mental organisation. and, to a cer-
tain extent, reconstructed my hat, I ask leave to
briefly detail what I have just witnessed.
I had been informed that the space at the bar of I 1
the House of Lords being limited a certain number I
only of members would be allowed to accompany the I
Speaker, and . that these would be selected by lot
from the names of those wishing to be present at the
ceremonial.

On my way to inscribe myself in this loyal band
I met a tall friend, to whom I confided my errand,
asking him at the same time whether he had done
likewise. He smiled sardonically, and replied that
he usually found that he could take his own part,
and that be did not find it necessary to appeal to
fortune for his opportunity on these occasions, and I
confess that his broad shoulders appeared good
vouchers for the truth of his assertion. But I began
to doubt the value of the prize I proposed to give
myself a remote chance of winning, and, instead of
waiting for the "ballot," I joined a small knot of
members who had taken up a position at the.en-
trance to the Lords' corridor, where three policemen
barred further progress. After waiting there a little
while the additions to our party became very numer-
ous, and at last a vast crowd of members filled up
the space behind and forced us, the early comers,
into a front row facing the policemen, and filling up
the archway they guarded.
Retreat was now impossible ; otherwise, with an
instinctive knowledge of what was to follow, I think
I should have attempted it, and there I stood till the
pioneer of the " Black Rod" made a narrow lane
for his passage though our dense mass. Taking
advantage of a slight confusion which accompanied
this operation, I slipped round the pillar and seated
myself on a bench on the other or Lords' side of the
arch, and to this manoeuvre I owe the power of de-
scribing exactly the scene which ensued at that
point. After the delay of a few minutes the pro-
cession arrrived. Black Rod's pioneer first, then
the Mace, and then the Speaker. Up to that point,
I believe, all had gone well, but then came a sud-
den fierce rush, caused, I presume, by the contest
between those who had legitimately followed from
the house, and those who, like myself, had gone

forward for a start, and the procession overflowed
its banks at once, and became a disorderly and
outrageous mob, brutally struggling for precedence.
Reckless of everything except this object, they
pressed so closely on the Speaker that their feet
became entangled in his robes, bringing his dignified
progress to a sudden and most unseemly halt.
The tableau for the moment was fine, and the
scene, if it had possessed any historical or political
interest, would have made a splendid addition to
the frescoes around. It was the "ugly rush" spoken
of by the prophet Henley. The Speaker, helplessly
tethered to the ground, nevertheless bore himself as
a Speaker, and, turning on his assailants, flashed
back a glance of outraged dignity, of solemn and
Jove-like anger, which for the time was not
without its grandeur or effect, and a loud cry of
" Order" arose. Meanwhile, the dignified and
venerable figure of the Black Rod was seen feebly
defending himself with his back to the wall against
which he had been violently hustled. Lord Charles
Russell halted and turned back irresolute, apparently
debating whether his duties did not require him to
employ the mace on the heads of the misdoers, of
whom

" Those b9hind cried 'Onward,'
ApdAhoso_hefore_,cria,L, MLA, t,
find some ttle time elapsed before the " first com-
moner of the realm" could extricate his trampled
robes from their profane tread.
Then the procession was resumed, and, more
law being allowed this time to the Speaker, I took
advantage of my position and joined its foremost
ranks, end all went with comparative safety till we
reached the lobby. There another stream seemed
to come to join the already brimming river, and my
firm belief is that numbers of people not members
of the house were stationed there, and joined the
procession, as I had done before. Anyhow, though
the space was larger, the numbers seemed suddenly
to have increased, and I found myself enclosed in a
living wall and borne forward with accelerated velo-
city in the direction of the lefthand doorpost of the
entrance to the Upper House. All steerage power
was gone, and I drifted hopelessly on, and finally
dashed violently against the obstruction ; my hat,
acting as a buffer, broke the shock ; but I was
whirled round and carried sideways into her Ma-
jesty's presence, eventually settling against the bar
with a thump which seemed to occasion both surprise
and alarm to a very pretty woman on the other side
of it. There I remained, of course, a fixture, till
the Queen retired. I had the advantage of a front
place and could see her Majesty, but, obliged to
exercise the whole muscular power I possessed to
avoid being crushed flat by the pressure from be-
hind, I was not much the wiser for her Speech,
which, indeed, even had I been in a position of
greater physical comfort, such were the jostlings,
strugglings; exclamations, imprecations, and
laughter of those behind me I could not have
heard a word of.
I have since heard that one hon. member was
thrown down, and I believe the " House" walked
over him. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was
so maltreated that he retired from the contest and
was seen wending his solitary way back to the •
Lower House, mournfully moralising on the nature
of the unruly assembly of which he is the leader.
Now, Sir, what are the causes of this disintegra- •
tion of manners from which the House of Commons '
appears to suffer as soon as it gets outside its own '
walls ?

Is it that as representatives of the people they feel
bound to emulate the worst behaviour of a hustings
mob?

I incline to think that if the Lords were to make
rather more considerate arrangements for our re-
ception, and we, on the other hand, were to pass a
strict rule that not more than a certain number
should accompany the Speaker on'these occasions,
which rule should be enforced by an adequate body
of police stationed at the outer-door of our own
lobby, the scene of to-day, which was really a dis-
graceful one, would not re-occur.
Since which time another sufferer, signing himself
"A Crushed M.P.," writes thus :—Your correspon-
dent " W. D. B." draws noexaggerated picture of
the tumultuous way in which her Majesty's faith-
ful Commons obeyed her summons to attend
in the House of Lords to hear her gracious
Speech. upon the opening of the new Parliament.
It reminded me forcibly of the " bully" at
goal in the football field at Eton when the
object of the assaulting party is to force the ball
through the dense phalanx of the defenders into
the citadel of the enemy, the Speaker on this occa-
sion representing the football.
But what is the real cause of all this hustling and
jostling into the presence of our Sovereign ? Sim-
ply that in the arrangements made by the authori-
ties no adequate accommodation is provided for the
Lower House, though it is formally summoned to
attend. About 50 only can find standing room at
the bar, and we are even ousted from the gallery
which is at other times open for our use.
Now, her Majesty's Speech is addressed as much
to us as to the Peers, and if they have the advan-
tage of receiving her Majesty in their own Chamber
it would not be too much to expect that the whole
of the gallery as well as the bar should be left free
for the use of those members of our house as wish
to attend.
If this be not conceded for the future I would