Year: 1860

A London letter contains very interest.
ing description of the English Parliament in
session, from which the following will give
our readers fair idea of the scene:


The American Minister has the privilege
of issuing daily two tickets for each house,
and these with impartiality, are given to
American citizens in the order in which
they are applied for, and handed to the
doorkeeper, after having been sent in and
simpler process OF obtaining admission is by
some means to obtain pass directly from
member, and those who have no acquain-
tances in the House to whom they can send
for one, may always get it By giving shil>
ling to one OF the porters about the door,
who will soon return with the necessary
document.


a little before four o'clock, the hour for
the opening of the House, persons holding
tickets for the gallery, (the only part to
which strangers are admltted) are allowed
to pass into q waiting room, where they
remain until four o'clock, when they file up
stairs in the order in which they entered,
exhibiting their passes several times on the
way, and reaching the gallery door, are
finally admitted by the guardian. So you
see it is something of an operation to get
into the gallery of the House of Commons.


l went with the crowd at four o'clock
and secured a good seat in the corner of the
gallery, where had an excellent view of
the House. The strangers gallery is on the
opposite side from the Speakers chair, the
House being in the form of parallelOgram.
On either side are the members galleries,
where they come up to snooze and lounge
during the prosy and uninteresting debate.
Opposite, and above the Speakers chair, is
the reporters gallery, where fifteen gentle,
men of the craft were sitting, plying their
pencils at rapid rate. Back of this, but
entirely separated from it by net work of
wire which reaches to the ceiling, is the
ladies' galleries. Imprisoned behind this,
the fair ones can catch but faint glimpse
of the body of the House, and, l should
suppose, could hear nothing at all and Ger.
tainly they are not in position to influence,
by their smiles and frowns, any of the mem.
bers.


Such is the upper part of the hall. Be.
low, where the members sit, the benches are
ranged lengthwise, rising on each side, with
an aisle between them ten or twelve feet
wide, dividing the ministerial from the oppo-
stion party.


At the end of this aisle is the Speaker
chair, or rather box, for 1T resembles an old
fashioned watch box with the door open
more than anything else 1 could think of.
The Speaker, without any hammer with us
the connection between Speaker and hammer
seem inseparable,) but dressed in long
black robe, and full flown powdered wig,
sits in it, and before him in similar robes,
but wigs of not quite so great a length, sit
the Clerk and his associates. The members
are ranged on the benches on either side
the ministerial party on the right, and the
opposition on the left of the Speaker. The
members sit with their hats on, taking them
off, however, when rising to speak. For
eigners, and Englishmen in particular, have
amused themselves to no little extent with
their description of the scenes in the House
of Representatives, and have described