The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-03-25

described the functions of the Par
liamontary "whips," who were not
recognized in law, but whose bid .
ding was law to the members of |
their respective parties. Some hast
ened from the ends of the earth, !
travelling day and night, to bc in
the House at an important division
at the behcst of the "whip." Divi-
sions of the House were sometimes
demanded upon frivolous pretexts
for purposes of obstruction. The
Irish party, whom the lecturer hit
hard several times in his talk, were
particularly prone to this device.
There was no calling of a roll, with
responses of "ayes' and "nays,"
in a division, but it was "Ayes to
the right, noes to the left" and the
members filed out of the chamber
and back in two streams, being re-
corded at three different points, so
that miscount was scarcely possi-
bic. When q vote was about to be
taken, the Speaker cried out,
" Strangers withdraw" but the
strangers never bulge, because the
order is known to be now only
mere formality. There were three
ways of turning out the Government,
defeating it in u vote upon important
questions, by vote of censurc, or
by Il vote of want of confidence.
Bills may, however, be presented by
members of the Cabinet without the
latter as q whole taking the respon-
sibility of them, and in such a case
the rejection of the measure did not
involve the overthrow of the Govern
ment. Great care was taken in
England to avoid hasty legislation,
that evil from which the lecturer
said his own country suffered. A
matter for legislation taken in hand
by the Ministry was first discussed
in Cabinet Council, and if bill was
resolved upon a draft of it was out
lined and sent to the parlia-
mentary counsel, who prepared
bill for Parliament. The present
counsel had held the office for
great many years, so that his expert.
ence is very valuable. Then the
measure had to pass two readings,
committee of the whole and third
reading, after which it was reviewed
by the House of Lords, and returned
to the Commons with or without
amendment, for final assent. Royal
assent to measures is given in the
Lords chamber, whittier the Com
moners are summoned to hear it,
and thirty or forty of them troop in
and stand in an enclosenc set apart
for them during the brief ceremony.
Since the death of the Prince Con-
sort, Queen Victoria has not come
down to give her assent in person,
but sends a commissioner. Assent
is given by the words, in old Nor
man-Freneh, signifying, "The Queen
wills it," as the Clerk reads the
titles of the bills. The lecture
closed with sketch of the respec-
tive careers of Disraeli and Glad
stone. 1t told how the former, born
in 1926, entered Parliament at the
age of 80, after he had, ten or twelve
years earlier, become well-known as
the author of Vivian Grey. Starting
rs Liberal of q radical profession
sedition being his forte according to
his own statement in letter-he
was in reality an ambitious adven-
turer in politics, watching every
opportunity for self-aggrandizement.
Soon he gravitated to the following
of the Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel.
That statesman's determination to
repeal the corn laws, whose burdens
he had for some time been reducing,
gave young Disraeli the grand oppor-
tunity of his life. Sir Robert S
enunciation Of his policy had left the
Tories dazed and specchless over
his abandonment of party traditions.
Disraeli saw his time had come, and
springing to his feet poured out tor
rent of abuse upon his old leader for
descrting his lifelong supporters. He
declared that, although diminished,
the Tory party was not destroyed.
From that hour he was the idolized
leader and champion of the Conser-
vatives of England. His followers
loyalty even survived his coup a.
ctat of 1867, when he gave the
nation a more sweeping franchise
measure than even his most radical
opponents would have vcntured al
that time to present. The culmina.
ton of his wonderful career wa:
reached in the summer of 1878, OF
his entry into London after taking
part in the Berlin Conference, where
he had crossed swords with Bismarcl
and won triumphs flattering to his
country. His brief foreign policy
however, only resulted in few use
less wars with small nations and