Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-12
A METHODIST STATESMAN.
He Is Tory Member of the British Par
lament, and q Thorn IN the Flesh OF
His Political opponents-An Ecumen-
icaI Delegate.

/
lament and Thorn IN the Flesh oi
icaI Delegate.
MIR. Fl. j. Farmer Atkinson, M. P, was
a passenger on the steamship German1c,
which arrived in New York Friday after
noon. Mr.. Atkinson is one of the most IN
teresting and certainly the most trouble
some member of the present House of Com
| mons. He comes to America in the first
place as a delegate from the English Metho-
dists to the Ecumenical Methodist Confer
ence now holding at Washington, and in the
second place to get full and accurate
knowledge of this country.
1t is fairly safe to predict that Mr.. Atkin-
son will give more genuine pleasure to US
than any foreign visitor who has come here
for many years, says the New York Sun.
When the American Methodists were in
England he entertained them. He gave
dinner to the bishops and caused no end of
fun by putting one black and then one white
bishop all the way round the table. That is
a sample of what he can do as public en-
tertainer.
Mr.. Atkinson is a Tory Methodist member,
and sits for Boston, Lincolnshire. All other
Methodists are Radicals. He is best known
here as the man who was suspended for
seven days, but that is only one among his
many interesting achievements, and the
American public will soon be yearning for
all the information it can get concerning
him.
Censured by Speaker Peel.
Speaker Peel censured him for friv-
olous conduct in challenging the accuracy
of divisions, and Atkinson accused him of
abuse of power in placing this statement on
the records of the House. Above all things
tod tbot ha ia
also wrote a letter to the Speaker, saying he
would not be terrorized. This letter, the
Speaker said, was too outrageous to read to
the House. He made further use or abuse
of his power by having Atkinson suspended
for a week. The session was within two
weeks of its close, and the Irish Nationalist
saved him from two weeks suspension: .
Just after his suspension he attempted to
entertain party of Americans on the ter
race of the House, but as that was within
the precincts of the House, the Sergeant at
Arms had to see him of. He took the
Americans to one of his clubs and gave
them q good dinner. 1t is also alleged that
he haunted the precincts of the House in a
rowboat on the Thames, but that wasn't
true.
As soon as he was permitted to return to
the House he lost no time in declaring In
the vigorous way which belongs to him, that
he would not rest day or night until he had
had the imputation of frivolous removed
from his name. He gave notice of this
motion:
Moving to Censure the Speaker.
-"Mr. Atkinson, Mr.. Speakers Conduct
That this House having heard the state
ment of one of its members, hereby expresses
disapproval of the Right Honorable the
Speakers discourtesy in not replying at all
to constitutional inquiry of the said men,
Der very respectfully worded; and further
expresses its opinion that a Member of Par
lament who asks (1) the Speaker, (2) Mr..
Milman, (3) Mr.. Jenkinson for ruling or
precedent as to whether notice is in order
or not, is unfortunately situated if he waits
one hour for reply from one or other of
those officials, gets none and is then ruled
out of order"
When his turn came to make the motion
and the Speaker called his name, Mr.. Atlin-
son should have raised his hat in the usual
way, but as he had no hat on he bowed
twice. This didn't answer the purpose, un-
fortunately, and his motion was lost, and
there was more trouble with the Speaker.
He again declared his intention not to rest
until he had the word frivolous expunged
from the records, and he will probably win.
Among the 80 notices of motions which
now stand on the order book of the House,
to be dealt with at the next session, are II
belonging to Mr.. Atkinson. The other 81 are
divided up amonS 6 men. They are all in
teresting. The most serious one is of a bill
to close public houses in England from Sat
urday at p. NJ. to Monday at s AN.
Another reads: "Bill to enable magistrates
to convict and punish money lenders who
press their services on minors at the universi-
ties, in the army and in the navy, and to
render all such loans irrecoverable by law"
Then there is a bill to limit the duration of
speeches of.honorable members to 10 min
utes and right honorable members-that is
and former members of the Gov
80 minutes. |
Some Queer Motions and Bills.
Another motion is that an arrangement
be made by which honorable members can
read and write comfortably during the de-
livery of long speeches. There is q bill to
enable peers to stand as candidates for tile
Lower House, and one to provide that no
man working the block system for a railway
company shall work for more than eight
hours a day.
Two bills represent his determination to
prevent members of the Government from
appearing on the directorates of worthless |
The only one of the II motions |
which is idiotic is a for a return of the num- |
Der of members who write for newspapers |
and the amount of remuneration received.
In appearance Atkinson is the British lion |
like a name, clean-shaven face, and white |
hair under the chin. His face is clean cut |
and striking-the effect is helped by thick, !
black eyebrows. He talks with a pleasant |
orkshire accent He was formerly a ship |
owner in Hull, Mayor of that town, and |
American Consul He talks and questions |
as much as any dozen men who ever came |
out of New England.