The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-02-22
Scenes i'm Parliament.

The popular branch of a legislature Is
not marked by that repose of MAMIE,
which stamps the more aristocratic Sen
| ate. The French chamber of Deputies
has often been so disturbed by scenes OF
violence that the president ;;has been
forced to adjourn the sessions. fEnglish-
men boast that the house of commons is
an assembly Of the first gentleman in
the land. Yet Lord Brougtman once
compared it to menagerie. A similar
sarcastic Judgment has applied the cpl.
tibet "beer garden" to our national house
of representatives.
In fact, the friends of representative
government have frequently been called
upon to say, with Edmund Burke. we
''must pardon something to the spirit of
liberty"
If an Englishman should be asked to
illustrate Lord Macauley's saying that
parliamentary government is govern
ment by speaking" he would point to
the house of commons. There ISL
would say, ''such freedom of debet *
the house that any member is at e II
to speak his mind on every to- Aeert{}
! comes before it." ore which
theoretically the assert;
practically it is false. = een - true, pu'
auently limits the fr' o os t ne hoSse ire
worth listening Aeer that he is MOI
| him. @, ana that 1t won't heal
oar t trmm W. II Martineau used to stiff hei
But tt get tired of listening to q bore
obr e House of Commons silences ar
p -oxlous speaker by noises that justify
>rougham's sarcasm. At such times, q
blind stranger, who should happen to be
present, Would be pardoned for. sup.
posing himself in geological garden
!ocated in the vicinity of barn
iy2.cd.
. Some years ago an obnoxious speaker
was assaulted by this ''assembly of gen
tlemen" with adeafening uproar. At in
tervals, a drone-like humming was heard
as if some one in the distance was play
ing on bag-pipes.
From the ministerial benches came an
accurate imitation of yelping hound
Amid coughing, sneezing and yawnine
there sounded the Growing of a cock
the bleating of "a sheep and the brayine
of an ass.
Sir Charles Dixie, now a member Of
the Cabinet, was once the cause of the
house turning itself into barnyard. He
uttered protest against certain extrav.
agant expenditures ofroyalty. Atorrent
Of groans answered him.
When member rose to second Sir
Charles protest, he was met with such a
storm of Kisses, groans, and shouts and
cock-crowing, that he could not be
heard. Every sort of fowl seemed to
have voice in the assembly. The
hoarse cry of the cochin was answered
by the shrill note of the bantam and the
dulcet piping OF a chicken.
Once, however, s'scene" in the
house was productive of great benefit to
British seamen. Mr.. Plimsoll, a philan-
thropic NJ. P. had long advocated meas
ure designed to proven. unprincipled
merchants from sending rotten ships to
sea. They expected the ships to be
lost, in which case they would receive
the value of ship and cargo.
Seeing that scores of seamen were thus
abandoned to death, Mr.. Plimsoll tried
to persuade the then government to pass
a preventive bill. He was put off SEES
sion after session with vague promises.
One night his soul was stirred within
him, as he saw that his bill was likely to
be laid aside. He denounced the minis
try for ''consigning hundreds of brave
men to miserable death, and making
their wives widows and their children
iatherless."
The speaker called him to order, but
i've proceeded in more violent terms to
denounce the speculative scoundrels,
some of whom were members of the
House" who thus made gain out of the
lives of seamen. 81 am determined, "he
shouted, ito unmask the villains"
The speaker called him to order for
applying the word william" to member
of the house. Mr.. PhmsoIl refused to
retract the word, and the house called
upon the speaker to reprimand him for
disorderly conduct.
There was much excitement, and Mr.
Plimsoll subsequently withdrew the Of
'ensive expression. But the papers
spread the "scene" before the country.
public attention was called to the fragrant
abuse, and then Parliment was forced to
pass the preventive bill.