The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-30


quiet readiDg-room to the Concert.room and the
bar. But there is no attempt to separate the
reader from other members; indeed, the fact Is
that there is free interCOmmuuicaton which
shows that the reader the steady member OF the
club, has very considerable influence upon the
others. All are better because OF his being
there. On the second floor is q room for con.
versation and playing. the games being cards.
dommoes, Chess and draughts. You can see
stad men there sitting quietly around little
pembroke table, absorbed in the chances
afforded for fine play, and for appreciation of
character, which you get in a rubber at whist.
Again mounting the stairs you reach the
billiard and bagatele room. This is evidently
a favOrite resort of many members. The amuse-
ments are paid for at very reasonable rates.
An ordinary two-handed game of billiards costs
three half pence; four-handed game may be
had for threepence; bagatelle is O penny a
game; Tor cards the players pay penny per
night. Chess, draughts and dominoes are free"
The English Parliament and the Press.
From The London Spectator.
If the entire body of members in the House of
Commons cannot abolish q grievance which
closely and personally touches them all, effect
i've power has ceased to exist in England. We
do not believe it has ceased, and consequently
believe that vote of f120,0 900 for a new House
of Commons may be placed in the estimates this
year and accepted without division. 1t is q
little absurd that after spending two millions
and halt on a parliamentary palace mainly
intended to lodge the House OF Commons,
9l20, 600 more should be demanded for lodging
the same body; but Eugishmeh are slow to
learn except by experience, and the existing
grievance is almost lntolerabie. tits bad enough
for members, but for journalists 1t is so bad
that If there was the smallest spirit OF unity
in the profession they would strike, and reduce
the House at blow from governing body
into bad-tempered debating Clue, wasting its
evenings in debates to which nobody attended
Without the journalists the members would be
pack of nobodies, chatteriug every evening to
each other with nobody 10 listen to them; yet
they treat the professionals whose aid makes
them governing men as Ii they were servants
huddled into the lobby of theatre with their
masters umbrellas. Their own case, no doubt,
is a serious one. The new house supposed TO be
built for their accommodation will not seat COM
iOrtably halt their number, and will not hold
two-thirds with any amount OF packing; it has
q floor which renders one man Ill three lnaudl-
Bile, is ventilated that three hours OF that
climate makes old men sleepy aud young men
furious, and has galleries IN which no one,
except he be perhaps q peer, can see, hear, or
write with any approach to comfort. III
they like quarrelliug for their seats, and speak.
ing over floor which drinks tnelr voices, aud
standing in their shadows so deep that the most
genial OF Tories looks like Jacobin haran-
gung his club it is no business of ours to remon-
strate against that form OF lmOecllty. All we
can say is that they are neglectlng thelr DUTY TO-
their constituents in not making the best or
themselves. We speak for our own profession,
which is as essential to the House as its own
mem bers and its own constituents, and Whlch
is at once degraded and injured by the existing
arrangements. Not to mention that the jour
nalists and reporters are placed In the very
worst locality Tor either seeing, hearing, or
writing, with Chauering women overhead, and
all speakers far below, they are denied anything
like adequate space. The reporters of the older
journals. who alone are considered legitimate
occupants of the gallery, are cramped Tor room,
and compelled to write in the most unnatural OF
attitudes, that of worshippers in pewed
church, while new papers positively cannot
get admittanCe. Are the members really so
fond of the old ones that they are willing to
vote them a close monopoly? As for the pro-
vincIal journals, who are daily becoming more
powerful and whose representatives have just
as much right within the walls of Parliament as
the London reporters, there is no room Tor
them; while the weekly papers are subjected to
regime absolutely grotesque III its folly and
injustice. The SII1 dag ReUielD, the Spectator,
the Examiner, the London ReOlelG, and half
dozen more are just as much read by Folltl-
clans, and have just ss much influence on poll
tics as the daily papers; yet their conductors are
debarred from listening to the debates for which
they have furnished half the material. They
are permitted, as great favor, TO attend in the
Reporters Gallery, Ia which they have no seats
of right, once a week. the rule being made most
stringent when the debates are most important
and consecutive, as, ior example, tue DEBATE
upon Reform. The editors OF the daily papers,
many of whom are rs powerful as any men on
the front benches are, we believe, tolerated
every night, but only of favor; and serious
complaint was made before this very Committee
that their presence was hndrance and nut
sance TO the reporters, who do not want either
to offend them or t. be bothered with their con-
Versation. Much of this arrangement IS, OF
course, due to the arrogant theory that reporters
and journalists, through whom alone the House
is powerful, are mere strangers" surplusage,
people of whose existence the House cannot
coudescend to be aware; but some of 1t is due
to the contracted limits OF House in which
the reporters galleries seem TO have been an
! aueIthought. The Journalists and reporters do
! not ask much, only room TO perform their un-
paid but inestmabe service; and If is refused IN
! any new House they ought, IN seltrespect, to
! render members lives a misery TO them, task
IN leaders, and reporting their chatter verbatim,
| with all the repetitiOns, delays, inter rludes,
! interjections, hawks, and other marks OF
oratorical incapacjty, which they now sup
press. Mr.. Barry's scheme for building q
| new House over the Commons Court and
the dintng-rooms remedies most Of these evils,
but 1t Is Insufficient. His plan avoids any inter-
! ference with the Palace, or any necessity for a
temporary House, and might, if he is energetic,
| be completed with decent speed; but he Is still
more attentive to anything than the House itself,
! which alone IS of first rate importance. He
| provides $50 seats; but no House is complete
| which does not contain 665 separate and mum.
| bered seats, one for every member whenever he
chooses to attend. That number once secured,
each member would retain his own place, sub.
! ject to the Well-knOWn party arrangements, any
| vacancy as it occurred being offered to mem
bets of the same side according to their seniority
in the House. All the quarrelling and loss OF
time caused by the present schoolboy arrange
ments would then be obViated; and members
could come in at their own time, and on the
fullest pight there would be no confusion. The
House would be almost as reasonably organized
as the stalls in provincial theatres
system OF a tribune Is inconsistent with our
proceedings in Committee: but fixed seats would
be no injury TO any one, except, perhaps,,a rev