The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 28, April 1893
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Various >> The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 28, April 1893
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A few minutes later an illustration occurred to the inspired orator, and
was thus brought under the notice of the entranced House:--
"Now, Denmark--it is a _remark_--able country, is _Den_--mark--for--we
have little--or no--dis--ease from _Den_--mark. The importation--from
_Den_--mark--is something like fifty-six--thousand--cattle--_and the_
curious part of it is this, that _nine_teen--thousand--of
these--were--cows--and _these cows_ came--to--this country--and--had
been allowed to go--_all over_--this country--and--I have never yet
heard--that these cows that--have so--gone over _this country_--have
spread any disease--in this country--."
This was a mannerism which amused the House at the time, but did nothing
to obscure the genuine qualities of Sir Walter, or lessen the esteem in
which he was held. It cannot be said that the House of Commons was
habitually moved by his argument in debate. But he was held in its
warmest esteem, and his memory will long be cherished as linked with the
highest type of English country gentleman.
THE PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.
At this time of writing there is talk in the House about payment of
members. A private member has placed on the paper a resolution affirming
the desirability of adopting the principle, and it is even said--(which
I take leave to doubt)--that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has a card
up his sleeve intended to win this game. It would be rash to predict
stubborn resistance on the part of a body that has so often proved
itself open to conviction as has the House of Commons. But I should say
that to secure this end it would need a tussle quite as prolonged and as
violent as has raged round Home Rule. Lowering and widening the suffrage
has done much to alter the personal standard of the House of Commons.
Nothing achieved through these sixty years would in its modifying effect
equal the potency of the change wrought by paying members.
[Illustration: "A PERSONAL STANDARD."]
One illustration is found in the assertion, made with confidence, that
under such a system the House would know no more men of the type of Sir
Walter Barttelot. He was not the highest form of capacity, knowledge, or
intelligence. But he was of the kind that gives to the House of Commons
the lofty tone it speedily regains even after a paroxysm of
post-prandial passion. The House of Commons is unique in many ways. I
believe the main foundation of the position it holds among the
Parliaments of the world is this condition of volunteered unremunerated
service.
In spite of sneers from disappointed or flippant persons, a seat in the
House of Commons still remains one of the highest prizes of citizen
life. When membership becomes a business, bringing in say L6 a week, the
charm will be gone. As things stand, there is no reason why any
constituency desiring to do so may not return a member on the terms of
paying him a salary. It is done in several cases, in two at least with
the happiest results. It would be a different thing to throw the whole
place open with standing advertisement for eligible members at a salary
of, L300 a year, paid quarterly. The horde of impecunious babblers and
busybodies attracted by such a bait would trample down the class of men
who compose the present House of Commons, and who are, in various ways,
at touch with all the multiform interests of the nation.
[Illustration: A SURPRISE.]
HATS AND SEATS.
The great hat question which agitated the House of Commons at the
commencement of the new Session, even placing Home Rule in a secondary
position, has subsided, and will probably not again be heard of during
the existence of the present Parliament. Whilst yet to the fore it was
discussed with vigour and freshness; but it is no new thing. With the
opening Session of every Parliament the activity and curiosity of new
members lead to inconvenient crowding of a chamber that was not
constructed to seat 670 members. In the early days of the 1880
Parliament the hat threatened to bring about a crisis. One evening Mr.
Mitchell Henry startled the House by addressing the Speaker from a side
gallery. This of itself was regarded as a breach of order, and many
members expected the Speaker would peremptorily interfere. But Mr.
Mitchell Henry, an old Parliamentary hand, knew he was within his right
in speaking from this unwonted position. The side galleries as far down
as the Bar are as much within the House as is the Treasury Bench, and
though orators frequenting them would naturally find a difficulty in
catching the Speaker's eye, there is no other reason why they should
not permanently occupy seats there.
Mr. Mitchell Henry explained that he spoke from this place because he
could not find any other. He had come down in ordinarily good time to
take his seat, and found all the benches on the floor appropriated by
having hats planted out along them. In each hat was fixed a card,
indicating the name of the owner. What had first puzzled Mr. Henry, and
upon reflection led him to the detection of systematic fraud, was
meeting in remote parts of the House, even in the street, members who
went about wearing a hat, although what purported to be their headgear
was being used to stake out a claim in the Legislative Chamber. Mr.
Henry made the suggestion that only what he called "the working hat"
should be recognised as an agent in securing a seat.
[Illustration: THE NON-WORKING HAT--UNIONIST.]
The strict morality of this arrangement was acquiesced in, and its
adoption generally approved. But nothing practical came of it.
By-and-by, in the ordinary evolution of things, the pressure of
competition for seats died off, and the supernumerary hat disappeared
from the scene. This Session the ancient trouble returned with increased
force, owing to the peculiar circumstances in which political parties
are subdivided. The Irish members insisting upon retaining their old
seats below the gangway to the left of the Speaker, there was no room
for the Dissentient Liberals to range themselves in their proper
quarters on the Opposition side. They, accordingly, moved over with the
Liberals, and appropriated two benches below the gangway, thus driving a
wedge of hostile force into the very centre of the Ministerial ranks. It
was the Radical quarter that was thus invaded, and its occupants were
not disposed tamely to submit to the incursion. The position was to be
held only by strategy. Hence the historic appearance on the scene on the
first day of the Session of Mr. Austen Chamberlain with relays of hats,
which he set out along the coveted benches, and so secured them for the
sitting. On the other side of the House a similar contest was going
forward between the Irish Nationalist members, represented by Dr.
Tanner, and their Ulster brethren, who acknowledge a leader in Colonel
Saunderson.
[Illustration: THE NON-WORKING HAT--IRISH.]
These tactics are made possible by the peculiar, indeed unique,
arrangement by which seats are secured in the House of Commons. In all
other Legislative Assemblies in the world each member has assigned to
him a seat and desk, reserved for him as long as he is a member. That
would be an impossible arrangement in the House of Commons, for the
sufficient reason that while there are 670 duly returned members, there
is not sitting room for much more than half the number. When a member of
the House of Commons desires to secure a particular seat for a given
night he must be in his place at prayer time, which on four days a week
is at three o'clock in the afternoon. On the fifth day, Wednesday,
prayers are due at noon. At prayer time, and only then, there are
obtainable tickets upon which a member may write his name, and, sticking
the pasteboard in the brass frame at the back of the seat, is happy for
the night.
Where, what Mr. Mitchell Henry called, the non-working hat comes in is
in the practice of members gathering before prayer time and placing
their hats on the seat they desire to retain. That is a preliminary that
receives no official recognition. "No prayer, no seat," is the axiom,
and unless a member be actually present in the body when the Chaplain
reads prayers, he is not held to have established a claim. Thus his
spiritual comfort is subtly and indispensably linked with his material
comfort.
A NEW THING IN SYNDICATES.
There is nothing new under the glass roof of the House of Commons, not
even the balloting syndicates, of which so much has been heard since the
Session opened. Fifteen or sixteen years ago the Irish members
astonished everybody by the extraordinary luck that attended them at the
ballot. The ballot in this sense has nothing to do with the electoral
poll, being the process by which precedence for private members is
secured. When a private member has in charge a Bill or resolution, much
depends on the opportunity he secures for bringing it forward.
Theoretically, Tuesday, Wednesday, and (in vanishing degree) a portion
of Friday are appropriated to his use. On Tuesday he may bring on
motions; on Wednesday advance Bills; and on Friday raise miscellaneous
questions on certain stages of Supply. On days when notices of motion
may be given there is set forth on the Table a book with numbered lines,
on which members write their names. Say there are fifty names written
down--or four hundred, as was the melancholy case on the opening night
of the Session--the Clerk at the Table places in a box a corresponding
number of slips of paper. When all is ready for the ballot, the Speaker
having before him the list of names as written down, the Clerk at the
Table plunges his hand into the lucky-box and taking out, at random, one
of the pieces of paper, calls aloud the number marked upon it.
[Illustration: BALLOT.]
Say it is 365. The Speaker, referring to the list he holds in his hand,
finds that Mr. Smith has written his name on line 365. He thereupon
calls upon Mr. Smith, who has the first chance, and selects what in his
opinion is the most favourable day, _ceteris paribus_, the earliest at
liberty. So the process goes through till the last paper in the
ballot-box has been taken out and the list is closed.
It is at best a wearisome business, a criminal waste of time, useless
for practical purposes. It was well enough when Parliament was not
overburdened with work, and when the members balloting for places rarely
exceeded a score. But when, as happened on the opening day of the
Session, two of the freshest hours of the sitting are occupied by the
performance, it is felt that a change is desirable. This could easily be
effected, there being no reason in the world why the process of
balloting for places on the Order Book should not be carried out as was
the balloting for places in the Strangers' Galleries on the night Mr.
Gladstone introduced his Home Rule Bill. On that occasion the Speaker's
Secretary, with the assistance of a clerk, and in the presence of as
many members as cared to look on, arranged the ballot without a hitch or
a murmur of complaint from anyone concerned. The sooner the public
balloting is relegated to the same agency the better it will be for the
dispatch of public business. With it should disappear the consequent
wanton waste of time involved in members bodily bringing in their Bills,
a performance that appropriated nearly half the sitting on the second
day of the Session.
The spread of the syndicate contrivance would happily hasten the
inevitable end. It was by means of the syndicate, though it was not
known by that name, or indeed at first known at all, that the Home Rule
party managed in the Parliament of 1880-85 to monopolize the time
pertaining to private members. Their quick eyes detected what is simple
enough when explained--that the ballot system contained potentialities
for increasing the chances of a Bill by twenty or thirty fold. Suppose
they had ten Bills or motions they desired to bring forward. They
usually had more, but ten is sufficient to contemplate. These were
arranged in accordance with their claim to priority. Every member of the
party wrote his name down in the ballot-book, thus securing an
individual chance at the ballot. Whilst the ballot was in progress, each
had in his hand a list of the Bills in their order of priority. The
member whose name was first called by the Speaker gave notice of the
most urgent Bill, the second and third taking the next favourable
positions, and so on to the end.
It will be seen that, supposing fifty or sixty members thus combined,
their pet Bill would have fifty or sixty chances to one against the
hapless private member with his solitary voice. The secret was long
kept, and the Irish members carried everything before them at the
ballot. Now the murder is out, and there are almost as many syndicates
as there are private Bills. All can grow the flower now, for all have
got the seed. But it naturally follows that competition is practically
again made even. The advantage to be derived from the syndicate system
has appreciably decreased, whilst its practice immeasurably lengthens
the process of balloting.
LOUIS JENNINGS.
Mr. Louis Jennings, though he sat on the same side of the House as Sir
Walter Barttelot, and within a week or two of his neighbour's departure
likewise answered to the old Lobby cry, "Who goes home?" was of a
different type of Conservative, was a man of literary training, generous
culture, and wide knowledge of the world, and made his fame and fortune
long before he entered the House of Commons. It was the late Mr. Delane
whose quick eye discovered his journalistic ability, and gave him his
first commission on the _Times_. He visited America in the service of
that journal, and being there remained to take up the editorship of the
_New York Times_, making himself and his journal famous by his
successful tilting against what, up to his appearance in the list, had
been the invincible Tweed conspiracy. He edited the "Croker Papers," and
wrote a "study" of Mr. Gladstone--a bitterly clever book, to which the
Premier magnanimously referred in the generous tribute he took occasion
to pay to the memory of the late member for Stockport.
Upon these two books Mr. Jennings's literary fame in this country
chiefly rests. It would stand much higher if there were wider knowledge
of another couple of volumes he wrote just before he threw himself into
the turmoil of Parliamentary life. One is called "Field Paths and Green
Lanes"; the other "Rambles Among the Hills." Both were published by Mr.
Murray, and are now, I believe, out of print. They are well worth
reproducing, supplying some of the most charming writing I know, full of
shrewd observation, humorous fancy, and a deep, abiding sympathy with
all that is beautiful in Nature. I thought I knew Louis Jennings pretty
intimately in Parliamentary and social life, but I found a new man
hidden in these pages--a beautiful, sunny nature, obscured in the
ordinary relations of life by a somewhat brusque manner, and in these
last eighteen months soured and cramped by a cruel disease. Jennings
knew and loved the country as Gilbert White knew and loved Selborne. Now
His part in all the pomp that fills
The circuit of the summer hills
Is, that his grave is green.
[Illustration: MR. LOUIS JENNINGS.]
His Parliamentary career was checked, and, as it turned out, finally
destroyed, by an untoward incident. After Lord Randolph Churchill threw
up the Chancellorship of the Exchequer and assumed a position of
independence on a back bench, he found an able lieutenant in his old
friend Louis Jennings. At that time Lord Randolph was feared on the
Treasury Bench as much as he was hated. For a Conservative member to
associate himself with him was to be ostracised by the official
Conservatives. A man of Mr. Jennings's position and Parliamentary
ability was worth buying off, and it was brought to his knowledge that
he might have a good price if he would desert Lord Randolph. He was not
a man of that kind, and the fact that the young statesman stood almost
alone was sufficient to attract Mr. Jennings to his side.
[Illustration: AS CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER.]
Up to an early date of the Session of 1890 the companionship, political
and private, of Lord Randolph Churchill and Mr. Jennings was as intimate
as had been any one of his lordship's personal connections with members
of the Fourth Party. This alliance was ruptured under circumstances that
took place publicly, but the undercurrent of which has never been
fathomed. One Monday night, shortly after the opening of this Session of
1890, there appeared on the paper a resolution standing in the name of
Mr. Jennings, framed in terms not calculated to smooth the path of the
Conservative Government, just then particularly troubled. That Mr.
Jennings had prepared it in consultation with Lord Randolph Churchill
was an open secret. Indeed, Lord Randolph had undertaken to second it.
Before the motion could be reached a debate sprang up, in which Lord
Randolph interposed, and delivered a speech which, in Mr. Jennings's
view, entirely cut the ground from under his feet. He regarded this as
more than an affront--as a breach of faith, a blow dealt by his own
familiar friend. At that moment, in the House, he broke with Lord
Randolph, tore up his amendment and the notes of his speech, and
declined thereafter to hold any communion with his old friend.
No one, as I had opportunity of learning at the time, was more surprised
than Lord Randolph Churchill at the view taken of the event by Mr.
Jennings. He had not thought of his action being so construed, and had
certainly been guiltless of the motive attributed to him. There was
somewhere and somehow a misunderstanding. With Mr. Jennings it was
strong and bitter enough to last through what remained of his life.
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.]
Whilst he did not act upon the first impulse communicated to one of his
friends, and forthwith retire from public life, he with this incident
lost all zest for it. Occasionally he spoke, choosing the level,
unattractive field of the Civil Service Estimates. It was a high tribute
to his power and capacity that on the few occasions when he spoke the
House filled up, not only with the contingent attracted by the prospect
of anything spicy, but by grave, financial authorities, Ministers and
ex-Ministers, who listened attentively to his acute criticism. His
public speaking benefited by a rare combination of literary style and
oratorical aptitude. There was no smell of the lamp about his polished,
pungent sentences. But they had the unmistakable mark of literary style.
Had his physical strength not failed, and his life not been embittered
by the episode alluded to, Louis Jennings would have risen to high
position in the Parliamentary field.
_Portraits of Celebrities at Different Times of their Lives._
MRS. BROWN-POTTER.
[Illustration: AGE 4.
_From a Photo. by Levitsky, Paris._]
[Illustration: AGE 18.
_From a Photo. by Elmer & Chickering, Boston._]
[Illustration: AGE 24.
_From a Photo. by Filk, Sydney._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by Warneuke, Glasgow._]
Cora Urquhart Potter was born in Louisiana, her father being Scotch and
her mother partly Mexican. She was educated by her mother, and taught to
act and recite from babyhood, her mother making her play on all
occasions such as birthdays and Christmas. Her first appearance before
friends was at the age of five years. She was married at seventeen. She
never spoke English until fourteen, speaking entirely French and
Spanish, She played all over the States as an amateur, and when the
occasion came, and she was thrown on her own resources, she adopted the
stage as a profession. She has played in every country and city where
the English language is spoken. Mrs. Potter has, perhaps, the largest
_repertoire_ of any living actress.
H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES. BORN 1841.
[Illustration: AGE 3.
_From a Painting by F. Winterhalter._]
[Illustration: AGE 17.
_From a Photo. by Mayall._]
[Illustration: AGE 25.
_From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey._]
[Illustration: AGE 40.
_From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey._]
The article on the home life of the Prince and Princess of Wales which
we have the privilege of publishing in this number lends additional
interest to the portraits of their Royal Highnesses at different ages.
The accompanying portraits of the Prince represent him in his nursery;
as an Oxford undergraduate; in Highland costume; in the uniform of a
Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards (Blues); and finally, in an excellent
likeness, at the present day.
THE PRINCESS OF WALES.
[Illustration: AGE 17.
_From a Photo. by Hansen, Copenhagen._]
[Illustration: AGE 19.
_From a Photo. by Bingham, Paris._]
[Illustration: AGE 22.
(With the DUKE OF YORK as a Baby.)
_From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey._]
[Illustration: AGE 41.
_From a Photo. by Lafayette, Dublin._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey._]
Our first portrait of the Princess of Wales was taken in her native city
nearly two years before her arrival in England; the second was taken at
the time of her marriage; the third when her second son, the present
Duke of York, was about a year old; and the fourth in her robes as
Doctor of Music of the Royal University of Ireland in 1885. The
difference in the fashion of the dresses in these portraits is striking,
but not more so than the beauty of the Princess.
THE REV. S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.
BORN 1834.
[Illustration: AGE 5.
_From a Miniature._]
[Illustration: AGE 10.
_From a Drawing._]
[Illustration: AGE 35.
_From a Photo. by Hall, Wakefield._]
[Illustration: AGE 46.
_From a Photo. by Barnes, Colchester._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey._]
The Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, who has of late years won world-wide
popularity as the writer of "Mehalah," "John Herring," and many other
novels, was born at Exeter, and is the eldest son of Mr. Edward
Baring-Gould, of Lew-Trenchard, Devon, where the family has resided for
nearly 300 years, and of which place he is now the Rector. He is also
Justice of the Peace for the County of Devon. He had written on various
subjects of historical research before he took to novel-writing.
LORD CHARLES BERESFORD.
BORN 1846.
[Illustration: AGE 14.
_From a Photograph._]
[Illustration: AGE 20.
_From a Photograph._]
[Illustration: AGE 40.
_From a Photo. by Dickinson & Foster._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by Merlin, Athens._]
Lord Charles Beresford, son of the Marquis of Waterford, entered the
Royal Navy at thirteen, served on several warships, and accompanied the
Prince of Wales to India, in 1875, as Naval _Aide-de-Camp_. At the
bombardment of Alexandria he was in command of the gunboat _Condor_, and
his gallant conduct in bearing down on the Marabout batteries and
silencing guns immensely superior to his own was so conspicuous that the
Admiral's ship signalled: "Well done, _Condor_!" In 1884 he assisted
Lord Wolseley in the Nile Expedition.
JOHN ROBERTS.
BORN 1847.
[Illustration: AGE 2.
_From a Photograph._]
[Illustration: AGE 16.
_From a Photograph._]
[Illustration: AGE 26.
_From a Photograph by Whitlock, Birmingham._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by Alerts, Bombay._]
John Roberts, the finest billiard player the world has ever seen, was
born at Ardwick, Manchester. He commenced his career as a billiard
player very early in life, for when only a child of eleven he assisted
his father at the George Hotel, in Liverpool, his father at the time
being universally considered the best in England, and, consequently, we
find that he had in early life the very best model from which to study
the game. Some thirty years ago, when Roberts's father was champion, a
break of over 200 was a rare event, whereas now it is an every day
occurrence with third-rate players. Roberts's highest all-round break is
3,000. His superiority to those who rank next to him is unprecedented,
as evinced by his recent victory over Peall, to whom he gave 9,000 in
24,000. Roberts's style is simply perfect, and it is wonderful to watch
the various strokes during a long break, consisting as they do of some
requiring great execution and power of cue, and others showing the
utmost delicacy of touch.
_The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes._
XVII.--THE ADVENTURE OF THE "GLORIA SCOTT."
BY A. CONAN DOYLE.
"I have some papers here," said my friend, Sherlock Holmes, as we sat
one winter's night on either side of the fire, "which I really think,
Watson, it would be worth your while to glance over. These are the
documents in the extraordinary case of the _Gloria Scott_, and this is
the message which struck Justice of the Peace Trevor dead with horror
when he read it."
He had picked from a drawer a little tarnished cylinder, and, undoing
the tape, he handed me a short note scrawled upon a half sheet of
slate-grey paper.
"The supply of game for London is going steadily up," it ran.
"Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all orders
for fly-paper, and for preservation of your hen pheasant's life."
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